[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 18 points 2 months ago

Literally none of these are an implication of socialism.

Some of these, like taking away all food, are explicitly anti-socialist. Just because states that acted under the name of a socialist government did many of these things, that doesn't mean that they have anything to do with socialism. That's like acting as if the current Chinese government were actually socialist instead of being a capitalist oligarchy, or like the Soviet Union under Stalin was anything but a hyper-authoritarian quasi-fascist military regime.

Socialism is expressed in socialist policies in states in Europe too and while it certain somewhat increases the tax burden on society, it alleviates the grueling effects of wage slavery and lack of access to food, as well as in especially well developed cases, allowing for greater personal expression than can be true otherwise in capitalist settings.

Claiming that having to move only happens under authoritarian regimes, completely besides the point of whether or not that is relevant to socialism in general, is in complete disregard to the constant forces exhibited by uncontrolled capitalism, forcing people to move, eat whatever cheap crap they can get and, believe it or not, experiencing how loved ones and acquaintances disappear, not due to the government taking them, but due to the for-profit society grinding them down into addiction, depression and death.

Note that in no way I wish to support any military regime or other undemocratic government. But socialism is the policy of putting the government to work to support society, by having everyone partaking in society assist in supporting those that need it. What you listed is not representative of that ideal and only serves to show the degeneracy of the governments that did so in the name of socialism.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 10 points 4 months ago

Well, much of the world does live in areas where 34 degrees Celsius are genuinely problematic and where homes are not suited to providing decent living conditions.

The fact that you don't immediately consider that temperature a problem given your personal circumstances doesn't mean that you should assume that it's not a problem for them. Your comment made it seem like you were trying to make light of it.

Where I live, 34 degrees is well past the point where we'd get major national emergency warnings from the government warning of the danger that the current heat poses. I'm curious how people in your area deal with 41 degrees though, that sounds brutal to me personally. I assume it'd at least be a low humidity heat?

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 19 points 4 months ago

Normality in some countries means little when it happens somewhere it's unexpected and people aren't used to it. Not only is acclimatization a thing, meaning that people who genuinely aren't used to these temperatures suffer more from them, it's also relevant how the local culture handles high temperatures.

Where it's normally very hot or very cold, infrastructure, daily routine and other culturally influenced elements provide for relief in some form. Texas suffered immensely under a cold period that other places in the world would consider utterly unremarkable, simply because it is utterly beyond what had been anticipated.

Telling people in those situations that something isn't that hot/cold is a bit callous.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 11 points 8 months ago

Shops closing on Sundays in Germany is no workers rights issue. No one is asking workers to work 7 days a week.

Germany as plenty of students, for example, who'd love to have a job on the weekend because they have the freedom to choose a bit better when they work and when not.

The reason Sunday to this day is still a day when almost all shops have to close is mostly religious. There are restaurants and some other shops that are allowed to stay open and most of them choose either a different rest day or make sure that they have someone on any of those days. One workday on a Sunday is plenty to fill out a typical untaxed low payment job that are very useful to students and others looking to just get a bit of an income.

Actual workers rights aren't telling people that they can never work on Sundays, they're guaranteeing people that they will never need to work too much.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 11 points 9 months ago

Seems like it recognized the mod somehow being installed but, as it didn't go through the normal process, it never set a proper date of installation. Instead it must have defaulted to 0, which in Unix time is the begin of the Epoch, in 1970.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I didn't miss it, I just didn't search through your comment history to find your own arguments for you. Consider editing the actual top level comment if you want to use these arguments without retyping them.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 31 points 10 months ago

You seem to be implying that fusion is a gimmick of an idea by comparing it to Hyperloop which was nothing but that.

Fusion is a mechanism which has been providing humanity with energy from the first moments in the form of the sun. It's a well known functional form of energy generation. The struggle isn't whether or not it could possibly work, but just to make it practical enough to make it work.

This isn't even necessarily about a single company promising that they have an idea that may work, this is an example of it functioning in some capacity.

Your comparison is simply arbitrary.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 26 points 1 year ago

So that vision impaired people or people with whatever other impairment can enjoy the content. The text can be read out by a screen reader.

Historical accuracy is not racism. Choosing to identify yourself based on the racist actions in your history is.

To drive it to the extreme, it would be like saying that Germany depicting Jews being gassed on their new flag isn't racist, just historically accurate.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 10 points 1 year ago

Sadly this doesn't work if one of the parties is threatening to do all they can to break down the democracy before you get your chance to see the results at the next vote.

1

I will be DMing a DnD 5e adventure going from levels 1-12 starting this week. I am finishing up the personal quests for each character to help tie them in more into the adventure and give them something to look forward to for themselves. Most of the characters were pretty easy to work with, but I am somewhat stuck on the Armorer Artificer.

They have stated that their character's dream is to create a legendary item. Whether it be an artefact or just some other powerful magic item, doesn't matter too much to them. Handing out a powerful magic item as the final reward for a personal quest is very classical anyways, so I'd love to go with it.

The problem is, I can't think of anything fun to give an Armorer Artificer. They have lots of stuff to work with on their own, so neither a weapon nor an armor is really going to be of interest to them.

Have any of you homebrewed some fun items just for Armorer Artificers or have any idea for existing (be it Wizards stuff or homebrew) stuff to hand out? It should be a considerable reward for someone around level 10.

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 22 points 1 year ago

The claim that tensions between those holding power in the capitalist system and the growing communist forces caused the second world war is a pretty hot take as someone who grew up in Germany. Do you have sources on professional dissemination of the facts that arrives at this conclusion? I'm genuinely curious because I hadn't heard of that interpretation yet.

1

I have been running a DnD campaign which is only getting longer and more complex as time goes on. Keeping track of every bit of lore, every NPC that is relevant to the party and major events that have happened is getting increasingly difficult. I am currently mostly trying to just keep everything in mind while taking notes here and there, but I am finding linear text documents to be hard to maintain and look through.

The thing that has made me especially interested in better tools is that I have been planning to do a homebrew campaign once this one has wrapped up and I would like to start planning it out.

What tools do you use to document info on worldbuilding, story and lore?

1
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network to c/askgamemasters@ttrpg.network

Combat makes up a decent chunk of most campaigns and the setup can make it either a blip that no one will remember to one of the most memorable parts of the campaign. I've been looking for various ways to make combat more fun in my campaign and was eager to see if people here have any ideas they'd like to share. I'm looking for anything that gives alternate win conditions, gives the players new ways to interact with the environment, forces special behaviour or anything to make a combat encounter unique.

I'll start with some of my favourites.


Battle Complications

Anything that makes combat more complicated than "kill this list of people". Special conditions and anything in that direction.

-- Ritual in Progress Someone is casting a terrifyingly strong ritual and it must be stopped by either destroying conduits, removing sacrificial materials or killing the casters. Typically this is something that allows enemies that wouldn't be very dangerous otherwise to have a far greater effect simply because the party can't focus them down, needing to spend their time on the ritual being stopped. If they fail, the possible punishment should sound quite bad, so that they feel a strong urge to stop what is happening.

-- Ritual-borne Foe Similar to the last one, but this time it's not a time limit but rather something that requires a novel way to defeat. An enemy that is incredibly powerful and dangerous to the party being kept alive or present by as summoner or necromancer of some sort, or alternatively by a contraption. Players must destroy or deactivate the source to defeat the opponent before it defeats them. This may be through directed combat or through a puzzle of sorts in the middle of combat.

-- Constant Reinforcements The BBEG is constantly calling forth fiends from another realm or some device creates more and more small creatures swarming the players. These elements make sure that the players can't just clear out the room, leaving the big bad guy in the middle helplessly overwhelmed by sheer action-economy. Instead, they have to either win quickly or alternatively do their best to disable the sources of enemies.

Environmental Hazards

These are difficult to design but great when they work out. Hazards in this case is taken in a very general sense.

-- Unstable Ground The ground that both the players and enemies are standing on is unstable and may break away easily. May it be as the result of some level being pulled, an attack hitting the ground or maybe just random chance. As long as the players have some chance to react to what is happening, this can include anything that can make ground unsafe to simply stand on. This makes certain types of ground that are stable very favorable and possibly worth fighting over. Bonus if the enemies have ways to contest ground, just like the players can.

-- The Floor is Lava The ground erupts in Flame, flashes of radiant beams hit the combat arena or meteors strike the area. Very similar to unstable ground, but more temporary, are occasional AoEs hitting the ground. Once again, these are best when the players feel like they can really work around them sensibly.

-- Bottomless Pit (Maybe with a bottom) A pit that people can be thrown into. This urges people to finally realize that shove is a thing. Don't make it too easy to fall into though, falling to your death into such a pit with little chance to safe yourself won't feel great. Make sure that they get a chance to save themselves or be saved if they do fall!


These are what comes to mind immediately. What interesting mechanics have you used to change your combat into something the party ended up finding really thrilling or memorable? I myself play DnD 5e, but I would love to hear your stories from other systems that I may implement in my campaign too!

[-] KoboldOfArtifice@ttrpg.network 19 points 1 year ago

They weren't claiming that people had a habit for paying taxes in general but that because nothing else is a habit they lack the energy to do the things that other people already consider draining when they had to spend so much on things that come naturally and in a way for free to others.

I would argue that brushing your teeth certainly seems to be habitual for most people. It's something they'd do if they went through the bathroom routine in the morning while effectively still asleep. This person is saying that if they don't effectively stand in the bathroom and look at the brush and decide "I will now brush my teeth." they won't do it, where someone else had grabbed the brush while thinking about what they need to get done later in the day.

Depression on the other hand would more likely manifest in a disregard for the necessity of the activity. This person says they do brush their teeth, they want to brush their teeth and they are ready to spend their existing energy on it.

A depressed person often would not be convinced that it matters, nor that they could even make themselves do it if they felt like they had to. Though naturally depression is expressed in many ways, as is any type of neurodivergence. It's hard to put strong labels on these things. Nonetheless it seems sensible to differentiate on these things as most neurodivergence is simply a set of untypical phenomena and behaviour that have collected up enough to start becoming notable.

A person considered completely normal could suffer from the same but simply manage well enough for it to never stick out. No one is entirely normal.

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KoboldOfArtifice

joined 1 year ago