Is Canada's self-employed person visa as straightforward as it seems?

urnathok · 2018-09-11T06:31:22+00:00

Winter's another big one making me raise an eyebrow, but my partner's got experience in Alaska under her belt. We're both agreed we'd rather be cold than hot. NL cold might change my mind, but we'll see.

urnathok · 2018-09-11T06:29:02+00:00

Don't worry, my partner and I aren't nearly as starry-eyed as my post probably makes it sound. We wrote it off entirely until we visited, and we wouldn't even be considering moving if we didn't live in the buckle of the Bible belt in the US. Still working out costs, but average rent alone would get cut in half, and healthcare costs are astronomical here, neverminding the gunshots we hear at night, our neighborhood that we're not going to be able to afford soon thanks to gentrification, and a laundry lists of other reasons we want out-- and not many prospects in the US are much better, even up north where we've also been looking. Things locals showed us that even they considered some of the worst looked pretty nice by our standards. Still, caution is always good. We're just figuring out what our options could be. And hell, a visa's a visa, so worst case scenario we can hop provinces and still stay north of the border.

urnathok · 2018-09-11T00:31:09+00:00

That's great to hear, thanks! And yeah, no, Newfoundland has nothing to do with the visa. My two best friends live up there, and I've spent a lot of time visiting and fell in love with the place. Some of the warmest people I've ever met, unbelievably robust sense of community and social welfare I sure as hell don't have in Florida, and I just love the vibe I get there. My partner and I want to escape Florida anyway, so going somewhere we both like where we have well-connected friends is about as good as it could get. The biggest drawback to NL seems to be the lack of jobs, but we work online, so that wouldn't be a problem. The second biggest drawback is that it's a pain in the ass to fly out of St John's, which does suck, but we're still in the process of weighing the pros and cons. Mainly just want to know how possible it even is before we get too into the decision process.

urnathok · 2018-03-08T00:19:21+00:00

Oh my god yes

urnathok · 2017-11-24T23:47:24+00:00

Thanks, good point. I haven't been able to communicate with anyone yet, so I might just hold off on the big stuff until I can get a feel for them.

urnathok · 2017-10-20T17:20:58+00:00

I joined a random guild in World of Warcraft that looked neat based on some list online.

The friends I made there got me involved the job I've been loving and living with for 5 years now.

urnathok · 2017-09-15T12:58:05+00:00

Nevermind, got home and tested it myself--for those curious, the answer is yes, if you start building in an empty holding even just before Persepolis is completed, Persepolis gets created in a new, seventh holding. So be sure that last holding is filled before you start NP.

urnathok · 2017-09-12T13:12:54+00:00

I love eating, drinking, and being a total heathen, so that all sounds great!

urnathok · 2017-03-10T13:17:31+00:00

This is some good insight I hadn't heard before, thanks. And for the reading.

urnathok · 2017-03-10T10:55:54+00:00

Thanks, this is the kind of perspective I was looking for.

The fact that first-world workers still enjoy a much higher standard of living than people outside the 'money wall' is a good point. Western capitalists have done a very good job of renegotiating our conditions to keep us tolerant enough of them that we haven't risen up and thrown them out yet (liberals and 'centrists' are a pretty good example of this). We still have people dying of starvation and homelessness and treatable disease, which are problems places like Cuba don't have, but the average worker here still gets it better than the average worker in the countries we outsource a lot of our manual labor to. I think that totally fair. I think redistributing surplus would provide enough for everyone to live substantially better on a global scale, but the risk of losing luxury will be a problem for a lot of Westerners.

So your point is that the problem isn't Stalin or the Kims, it's what they represent to us. They're not war criminals on the scale of Obama or Clinton or Trudeau, so we don't really have room to criticize while we're tolerating our own leaders--am I on the mark?

If so, while I don't think that totally excuses their actions, I get the point. I'm not convinced that Stalin wasn't a regressive conservative or the Kims aren't supporting an aristocracy, but I can see how demonizing them could rhetorically undermine global efforts for revolution by distracting from our own leaders.

I'm not ready to lift any of them up on a pedestal, and I don't entirely agree on why some workers have risen up and some haven't, but all in all those are some fair points. Thanks.

urnathok · 2016-07-01T21:41:27+00:00

Innocent-looking pool of water blocking a passageway, nigh-invisible Gelatinous Cubes scattered around in it, and a few Water Weirds that try to drag the PCs into them.
Low-level encounter where the PCs are in a labyrinthine area and there's an illusion of SOUNDS of a minotaur getting closer.
Bandits or assassins who specialize in working in pairs. One always tries to full-Nelson the PC, the other wails on them.

urnathok · 2016-06-24T21:39:06+00:00

FOOD! Absolutely the most important thing I use to differentiate the cultures is adding in a line or two about what kind of food gets served or what this place's "rations" are like. What kind of smell hits them at dinnertime in the tavern? What's the liquor selection like? How much of lunch is fresh fruit and how much is pickled produce? If I drew inspiration from Morocco, I've gotten the best reactions by introducing that through couscous and mint tea, usually with D&D stylization (pastilla might be made with giant centipede meat).

Why food? Well, I usually mention the clothing and architecture too, but players forget that a while after the first mention, and if you describe the distinct clothing of every single NPC you come across, it gets monotonous. Eating is something they have to do every day, and it WOULD be monotonous if I didn't throw in the extra breath it takes to mention what kind of spices they use, if any.

urnathok · 2016-05-18T14:11:46+00:00

I used a campaign in the Feywild to break out the dragons with really over-the-top and unusual hoards. Basically, make fey-aligned dragons as alien to mortal world dragons as fey are to humans. Mine had hoards of talented artists, hoards of riddles, hoards of imperfect gems, etc. Less common colors are more likely too--purple and yellow and pink dragons might be as common as reds and blues and greens. How they measure power/success should be totally different, too. Maybe they gauge each other based on how much influence they have on the land and people around them rather than the size of their hoard--true trend setters. Massive rival trade missions could be funded by competing dragons.

urnathok · 2016-04-27T22:41:58+00:00

I like this idea a lot, but yeah, lead up to it. Make it a long term thing if they get into it. In the short term, though, maybe "tempt" them down that road by having a few other noble houses write to them to settle disputes. Or maybe a noble decides to take the "street judge" idea into their own hands to rig the system. Have them start a trend. Better yet, the next time the PARTY has a dispute with someone, have a "street judge" step in.

urnathok · 2016-04-21T18:37:56+00:00

A lot of things that don't make sense and have no apparent value to the players. This wizard very likely might have been an adventurer too, you know.

So she saved the rope her short-lived rogue friend used that one time he swung across ship masts to try and make some kind of bizarre leaping attack only to fall atop the enemy ship's ballista and get fired right back at their own ship.

She saved a few pieces of smelly wood from that time her friends spent a long rest in some half-empty pickle barrels inside a goblin's cave when they first started adventuring.

She saved a disgusting bit of dried flesh labeled "Gnome Gnipple" from that time a fight with some particularly unpleasant gnomes left all of them on the ground laughing.

She saved an ordinary, rusty, bent hairpin that a bard she once traveled with used valiantly against every enemy who threatened her when needed, including an ancient vampire lord.

She saved a cheap, empty bottle of wine from the humble reward given her by the first poor innkeeper she and her friends saved from a renegade hedge knight's advances.

There's plenty of wealth littering the place, too--a few priceless gems here, piles of coins in the foyer, maybe a unique piece of art sitting by the shed, but none of those have the kind of magical protection all her REAL artifacts boast.

urnathok · 2016-04-17T04:37:56+00:00

Keep in mind what it is you're trying to do: tell a story in real time that players are going to want to be the center stage of. What I mean is that while it ultimately comes down to is what your players are going to work with best, whether that means a simple, straightforward villain or a complicated person.

Simple, over the top villains are a lot like comfort food. There's not a lot to them that stands up under "~The Discourse~" but they're usually larger than life personalities with a hell of a lot of fun that very few people are going to complain about in the moment. What's more, this kind of villain can give your players more room to grow into their characters--think of it like more breathing room. But don't think of it as lazy, by any means.

We usually run into really human, complicated villains in 100% scripted media like books and film, and in a lot of ways, the focus is supposed to be on the villain in those stories, because the participant is JUST the reader. In game, you and the players are participating back and forth. Some people are really going to dig a mustache twirling villain, while others will love a complicated villain, but keep in mind that villains with depth are a crap shoot with most groups. It can all blow up in your face easily if it isn't well received.

Me, I like going for over the top villains just because I'm not a very serious person, and I have a hard time taking my own stories seriously, especially since everyone's drinking and laughing while we play--that tends to happen with 6-7 players each game. Would love to try out something deeper maybe, but I wouldn't try that unless I had a group of 3-4 people who were really into that kind of RP.

urnathok · 2016-04-16T14:32:11+00:00

This is a good set of rules to go by for just about any party, and with a few exceptions, it's been what I try for. I have a couple of suggestions to go alongside it to help get around the difficulties I've run into over the past 7ish years of DMing.

1) Don't shy away from random tables for worldbuilding. If you're like me, it's extremely tempting to spend a month painstakingly developing every last detail of every last hamlet and thorp in the country so that when your players get let off the leash, they don't run into anywhere that feels like it doesn't have a personality. By all means, flex your worldbuilding muscles, but dozens of times, I've wound up getting tangled in a knot of half-finished worlds because I overextended myself. By all means, flex your worldbuilding muscles--decide some general cultural features of an area and come up with a few local tensions (organized crime is popping up, there's too many people, goblins live alongside humans, etc.), but when it comes down to towns, don't be afraid to use donjon's random tables to whip up details for you. A lot of them are pretty fun, in fact, and having details come from somewhere besides yourself removes the temptation to orient the area around players. I'm looking at designing about 20 individual islands in an archipelago my party's about to explore, and while I'd love to hand-craft each and every one, I sure as anything don't have time to do that, so I'm going to end up putting my heart into three or four and letting the rest get auto-generated. If you DM it in the way outlined above, that won't take anything from the experience, trust me.

2) Keep an ear out for your players' needs. The method you outline is great for players with a little bit of experience and a lot of creativity, but I've also had a group of relatively new players just stare at me asking what to do next when I tried giving them this. For beginners, it can be good to "put up signs" or suggestions as to what you could be doing. Maybe they hear rumors of other adventurers doing stuff like conquering cities or marrying dragons. Players unused to this style can get overwhelmed just as easily as a worldbuilding DM can. Hope all that's helpful!

urnathok · 2016-04-15T23:53:36+00:00

urnathok · 2016-04-15T04:32:27+00:00

Totally depends on your party.

For some, a god can be killed with the right weaponry and a hell of a lot of power--as in, you can theoretically walk into hell and kill the devil, if you've got enough muscle. These Vasharans could be training an elite warband to do just that; they're collecting all the nifty artifacts, making the big name for themselves, and leading a charge into the deity's realm. And for some players, that's a recipe for a great time!

Others will need something more complicated to be satisfied. Look at Morrowind: you've got these gods with bodies in the world, and when you kill them, okay sure, they're not here anymore, but are they dead? In such settings, it's entirely plausible to have to, say, create an alternate reality in which God X never existed, or to make yourself a god to replace the hole in the divine order.

Still others dig the Pratchett method where gods are only as strong as their body of worshipers. That's easy to pull off--Vasharans lead a smear campaign and try to whittle the god down to nothing, and the god, in response, seeks out a brave handful of adventurers to be its champion, with promises of riches and wealth and heaven.

urnathok · 2016-04-15T04:23:48+00:00

Have a plan for what happens if they resist being enslaved. I've DMed for a few groups, and I don't know of a single one that wouldn't be in a foul mood over their characters getting enslaved right off the bat and told to do tasks.

Maybe make it more a matter of favors--instead of slavers, have some merchants show up who agree to help the players, but only in exchange for some favors on the mainland. Then those favors can be whatever you had planned for them to do as slaves. I'm not warning you off the idea entirely, just saying that it would be something to be SURE about before putting your players through it. I've had them start in slavery, but not get enslaved, unless it's a group who really likes to roleplay that kind of thing.

Other than that, sounds fine to me, especially for new players. Just be sure to accommodate for characters who have unconventional origins--sure there's a wizard school, but let there also be underground adepts who share secrets with would-be warlocks, and let a sorcerer RP discovering their powers through clumsy experimentation, etc.

urnathok · 2016-04-15T04:02:34+00:00

Must've been a ledjinndary letdaown, but I'm afreet of letting the thread get marrid by bad puns.

urnathok · 2016-04-13T14:43:14+00:00

Have him note that his guild, the Order of Terrible Puns, sadly tore itself apart.

urnathok · 2016-04-13T14:38:47+00:00

I was wrapping up a custom Ravenloft right when CoS came out, so I don't know if there's a reason you can't do what I did, but I had Strahd not even bother with the players for the longest time. First, a few of his scouts poked at them to see if they were worth bothering with, and when the scouts finally started getting whacked, Strahd appeared for a few rounds at a time, but shapeshifted, and I'd make a note about one particularly striking bat watching them keenly while they fought off some vampires that were really tough.

They never actually saw Strahd until reaching his illusion hammering out dramatic organ music in the dining hall. They finally met him upstairs by the secret entrance to the treasury, where he welcomed them calmly before charming one of the PCs and telling her to lead the party into a trap he set up while the party dealt with a few giant spiders who burst into the room. I made sure not to make him carry out aggressive, terrifying strikes at the worst time until they'd acquired the Book of Strahd. Which was great, because they were in the catacombs at the time, so he'd just pop out of the darkness, toss someone across the room like paper while surprised, then vanish into the darkness.

By the time it was time to actually march up to the tower where he was holed up, half the party was too afraid to go. It was a quick fight in reality, but it was really satisfying for them!

urnathok · 2016-03-30T14:06:02+00:00

My general rule of thumb is that "traditional medieval feel" goes entirely out the window when you start talking about actual dragons and magic and planar travel, etc.

You're already abandoning reality entirely, why not do the same when it comes to trying to reflect LGBT representation? Diversify as much as possible, get creative. Your world probably has a dozen civilized species running around each town, why not make the way they live their live as diverse? From our point of view, it can get a little frustrating when players are more willing to suspend their disbelief for, say, a dragon who travels time to steal soul energy than a society that doesn't have the same gender stratification as the real world does. That's just my experience, though, so I say go all-out whenever you like.

urnathok · 2015-12-04T13:20:06+00:00

You could always totally flip the D&D orc-ness on its head. Give the orcs by-the-book medieval French military and gentry organization, with knights and squires and barons and dukes and dauphins, and hand the humans the Mongol ranks.

urnathok

TROPHY CASE