Lianodel @ Lianodel @ttrpg.network Posts 1Comments 359Joined 2 yr. ago
That was definitely the case for me. There were definitely other factors that shaped my decision, but the biggest "click" was finding my preferred DE. So long as I can go about my day-to-day computing, everything else is easier to figure out.
In my case, it's GNOME with a couple extensions like Dash to Panel and ArcMenu. I know, some people would prefer not to use extensions, and yes, my system just looks like Windows now, but it works for me. :P
I think there are three main ways to make it work:
- Giving the GM tools to do the job. I remember reading PF2e and thinking, wow, it fills in so many of the gaps I had to improvise on the fly as a DM, and the balancing systems seems to, you know, work. Kevin Crawford's work, especially the ...Without Number series, famously provides so many useful tables guidelines even if you don't use the underlying system itself. Then there are system-neutral resources like the Tome of Adventure Design.
- Providing clear explanations for how and why the system works the way it does. I know it's a love-it-or-hate-it system, but Burning Wheel is great for this. It's a weird system, and whatever you think of Luke Crane, it's useful to have guidance and explanations for why the rules are the way that they are. Plus the Codex adds even more. I found I really like GM resources that explain the thought process behind running the game. IIRC some of Ben Milton's work does the same, and I like to have a commentary for my own projects.
- Giving the players meta-narrative agency. Admittedly, this one is extremely subjective. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm absolutely happy to let my players make some decisions for the game, but I found that my group specifically prefers to inhabit a world rather than shape it, and I'm not crazy about that style of play in practice. It feels more like writing a story than playing it out. TO BE EXTRA CLEAR, this is a matter of personal preference. For those who like it, it works fantastic, and the popularity of that kind of game goes to show how it works for a lot of people.
Oh yeah, I already have a Chromecast. I know this is a post about Roku specifically, but it was just another example of enshittification getting me to finally set up my own system. It was honestly the HBO Max disaster that got me started.
Good to know about App Only Mode, though! So far the Chromecast interface doesn't bother me, but it's good to know there's a ripcord I can pull if it gets worse (unless they take that away).
I've been doing some research for the last few days on setting up a home server/NAS. If anyone's going to ruin my entertainment, it's going to be ME
I dunno. When I was reading through PF2e, at a certain point it clicked for me that a lot of the rules actually make it easier to play a character by ear.
Take feats. There are tones, of different kinds, with different levels, sometimes with prerequisites. It seems like a lot of rules overhead, but that also means that you're not picking from the whole list every time you get one. If a player doesn't want to make a ton of choices, they can just pick one of the highest level feats they qualify for and have a pretty decent build. Maybe not optimized, but if they don't want to dig into the nitty gritty, that wasn't a priority anyway.
Plus, if a player wants to change their mind, the rules explicitly say you can swap things around. I know that works in 5e anyway by DM fiat, but still, it's nice to have a "don't worry too much" clause written in the books.
Ultimately a matter of personal preference, of course. I just think PF2e actually scales pretty well with player investment in the system, whether someone's really into character builds or just wants to follow some steps and get into the action.
I don't know if it scratches the same itch for you, but Archetypes do for me.
I actually love the "Silent Joe" line, because Trump is a notorious loudmouth. It even sounds like some playground nickname he'd come up with. Yeah, Biden doesn't do nearly enough to achieve things, but the alternative is explicitly going to make shit much, MUCH worse. Things can be unequally bad, and the gulf has only gotten bigger with an overtly fascist movement as a major player.
Do the Democrats suck shit? Yeah, no one's really denying it. But I'd rather fight against some milquetoast liberals than, I can't stress this enough, literal fascists. Democrats can be dragged kicking and screaming to do something after they feel the winds changing. Republicans will be intentionally trying to make shit worse for the vast majority of people.
A tale as old as time: the linear warrior, quadratic wizard. (TVTropes warning.)
I think it's a problem just because of changing expectations for the game. If you're playing modern D&D, where combat is supposed to be balanced, character death is rare, everyone levels at roughly the same rate, yeah, it sucks to be an early level wizard or a late level fighter who can't keep up with the rest of the party. I get why the trend has been to try to balance them, even if it's a bit wonky. I get it, it's hard to do.
But if you're playing it in more old-school way, where it's more gamey, it makes a LOT more sense. Combat isn't necessarily balanced, character death is more on the table, you're more likely to have a rotating cast, and parties can have different levels between the members. So the late-game magic-user is the reward for playing the class that's weaker earlier on, and the fighter is great for jumping into the action.
It's kind of funny how the enshittification of YouTube (and Google searches) is so bad, and so widely recognized, that YouTube giving the results you asked for—IF you're having a medical emergency—is considered newsworthy.
A big part of the confusion comes from the fact that different people will use these terms differently.
In a capitalist framework, there's private property and public property. Either an individual (or or specific group) own something, anything, or it's owned by the government.
In a socialist framework, private property is distinguished from personal property. Personal property is your stuff that you use for yourself. Your coat, your car, your TV, etc. Private property is the means of production, or capital—things that increase a worker's ability to do useful work. Think factories or companies, where ownership in and of itself, regardless of labor, would make the owner money. Socialists think that kind of private property shouldn't exist, because it means wealthy people can just own stuff for a living, profiting off of the people who do the work.
Housing can go either way. Owning a home for yourself and your family would be far closer to personal property, while owning an apartment building to collect rent would be far closer to private property.
Socialism, for the most part and historically, is an umbrella term describing social rather than private ownership. That would include anarchism, which largely synonymous with "libertarian socialism." Lenin, on the other hand, used it to more specifically refer to an intermediate stage between capitalism in communism, so you might see people using that more narrow definition to exclude anarchists, democratic socialists, etc.
Honestly, that's one of my biggest gripes: so many character abilities are just "turn this part of the game off." Something like Goodberry completely obviates the need to worry about food, and darkvision leads to annoying assymetry, and incentivizes the GM to just gloss over it, or hand the one player who doesn't get it from their race or class some magic goggles and be done with it.
If you don't want to play worrying about light sources or food, you can just do that. If you want to track those things, you can make it fun. But 5e's approach is kind of neither. It's there, but it sucks, so it doesn't matter. Bleh.
IIRC, that might be because their quality & reputation took a dip for a while. They were, after all, a Sears brand, and Sears got run into the ground by some blood-sucking leadership.
That said, they used to have a great reputation, and were sold to Black & Decker in 2017, who seem to be handling the line up much, much better.
I dunno. Did you see that interview he did recently? Dude is desperate for approval. It's pathetic.
My potentially controversial take is that metagaming is neither good nor bad. A metagaming problem is really just some other problem that rears its head through metagaming.
You can metagame and be a good player. It's like doing improv with dramatic irony. If you're prioritizing the gameplay and everyone's enjoyment, it's a useful tool.
If you're using it for the personal advantage of your character, though... that can also be fine. Some old-school games, especially dungeon crawls, are like strategy games testing the players as well as their characters.
It's when there's a disconnect between how people are playing the game that you get problems. If someone wants to play a strategy game while others want to play improv, and they're not thinking about what kind of approach is appropriate and when, that you get issues.
My main goal is to GM again! I haven't done that in too long. Step one is to just pick a game already. I think I've narrowed it down to three options:
- Something OSR, probably OSE (or Dolmenwood, when I get it).
- Pathfinder 2e, especially with the new update coming out.
- Burning Wheel. It's a White Whale of mine—my favorite game I've never played, despite owning for over a decade.
Too many games, not enough time!
See, they didn't even play their shitty little game correctly. You don't say the Democrats were the party of the Confederacy. You say the Democrats were the party of slavery. And then you ignore the connection between the Confederacy and Slavery. Then hope no one brings up the Southern Strategy and the obvious realignment.
Obviously it falls apart if you think about it for even a second, but it's not designed to convince anyone. It's designed to sound good to people who won't think about it for even a second, and annoy the people who would.
I don't know, I'm starting to get the sneaking suspicion that "good" and "profitable" aren't synonyms. It's almost as if there is often a financial incentive to make things worse...
Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Most of the criticisms of high-level play come from 5e players, which is fair, since it's pretty much not supported. But I also remember the high-level books from my 3e days!
I haven't had personal experience with it, but I know BECMI D&D supported it. I think the lower tiers (Basic and Expert) are more popular than the latter (Companion, Master, Immortal), but still.
Yeah. I also thought that the tunnels were too small for a subway (because one of The Boring Company's "innovations" is to drive costs down by digging smaller, shittier, and more dangerous tunnels using existing technology). However, there are subways in London that have even slightly smaller tunnels. You could absolutely lay down some tracks in there and have a functional subway. Giving it to Tesla to run a taxi lane for who knows how long was just a choice.
Also, from what I found out, the Loop is going to continue to fuck over the residents, because the expansions are going to have WAY higher fares. I think right now, the Loop is $4.50 for a day pass. As a point of comparison, a New York subway ticket is $2.90, so one round trip would be more expensive than a day pass. That makes the Loop sound great! ...until you realize the prices are kept artificially low to make it seem that way. Future plans for Loop service would cost upwards of $12 a ride outside of the convention center and resorts.
Also, as an aside, something I don't think gets brought up enough is that the Loop proves that Tesla's self-driving cars are a scam. Even on a close course, indoors, built to whatever specs Tesla could possibly want, the cars need human drivers.
Which edition are you playing? From what I can find, the Epic Level Handbook was 3e.
For people playing 5e, yeah, the game just breaks down around level 13-15. One of the funny things is that WotC has clearly recognized this is a problem, because they've implemented a solution... which is to just not publish high-level material. They just gave up on it.