Unpopular opinions go here

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've heard that McDonalds closed its restaurants in Russia in response to the war...

Goodbye, American soft power: McDonald’s exiting Russia after 32 years is the end of an era

For a generation of Russians, McDonald's represented their first exposure to capitalism and American culture.

www.cnbc.com

I've also heard that Russia ordered a number to remain open...

They did close them. Those that were “ordered” to remain open were essentially seized and made into different (but similar) restaurants. They’re no longer MacDonalds’ property in any real sense.

 

[MGibster]

Tell me you have never read the DMG without telling me you have never read the DMG.

To be fair, I imagine a lot of people who have read the DMG forget what's in there. I've actually read the 5th edition DMG front to back at least once. I can't remember what's all in there though.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Unpopular opinion: there are some dice rolls that should be kept secret from some or all of the players, up to and including the very player who made that roll in the first place

knowing you rolled a 4 on your deception check means you're never going to allow a scenario where the NPC 'plays along' with the lie to lead you on to happen because the moment they're saying 'sure i believe you' in response your eyes lock onto that '4' and you become as suspicious as all get out not trusting a single thing they say or do now because you know you beefed that deception.

or death saves, sure you can see your friend is bleeding out on the floor but should you know just how close to death's door they actually are? should your group know that you actually got a nat 1 on their first death save and suddenly everybody's all hands on deck the druid needs healing ASAP pronto done by this time yesterday!!! rather than sauntering across the battlefield because they know that they need 2 failed saves before things are serious and one of your checks is 50/50 going to be a success, so the paladin decides healing them isn't that big a priority they'll just use their attack to smite this guy real quick, next turn they'll cast bless, and then on the turn after that if the druid isnt doing too good maybe then they'll think about healing them, soonish.

 

[Hussar]

I honestly think that @Campbell has the right of it. Caster imbalance has nothing to do with book keeping. Being able to get spells off isn't the issue. And, frankly, IMO, has never really been the issue. We rarely saw casters get interupted anyway. It was just too easy to keep the casters out of the fray and make sure they were adequately protected.

No, the issue is more that casters, particularly out of combat, make non-casters largely superfluous. And, it's not like casters are getting interrupted out of combat. That and non-casters just lack anywhere near the options that casters have. There's nothing a non-caster can do that a caster can't. But there are a thousand things even a low level caster can do that a non-caster isn't allowed to regardless of level.

 

[Hussar]

Unpopular opinion: there are some dice rolls that should be kept secret from some or all of the players, up to and including the very player who made that roll in the first place

knowing you rolled a 4 on your deception check means you're never going to allow a scenario where the NPC 'plays along' with the lie to lead you on to happen because the moment they're saying 'sure i believe you' in response your eyes lock onto that '4' and you become as suspicious as all get out not trusting a single thing they say or do now because you know you beefed that deception.

or death saves, sure you can see your friend is bleeding out on the floor but should you know just how close to death's door they actually are? should your group know that you actually got a nat 1 on their first death save and suddenly everybody's all hands on deck the druid needs healing ASAP pronto done by this time yesterday!!! rather than sauntering across the battlefield, the paladin decides healing them isn't that big a priority they'll just use their attack to smite this guy real quick, next turn they'll cast bless, and then on the turn after that if the druid isnt doing too good maybe then they'll think about healing them.

Heh. One of the advantages of virtual tabletop play - dice towers that don't allow players to see their rolls.

 

[Cadence]

I honestly think that @Campbell has the right of it. Caster imbalance has nothing to do with book keeping. Being able to get spells off isn't the issue. And, frankly, IMO, has never really been the issue. We rarely saw casters get interupted anyway. It was just too easy to keep the casters out of the fray and make sure they were adequately protected.

No, the issue is more that casters, particularly out of combat, make non-casters largely superfluous. And, it's not like casters are getting interrupted out of combat. That and non-casters just lack anywhere near the options that casters have. There's nothing a non-caster can do that a caster can't. But there are a thousand things even a low level caster can do that a non-caster isn't allowed to regardless of level.

Some statements that may or may not be true laid out to tell a story as if it doesn't skip other important things:

• In the 1e/2e age, players were at least kind of ok with the Fighter (at least once specialization came out) in terms of matching the representative fiction of the day (except John Carter and Elric) and working at least okish in play
• Wizards in some of the representative fiction of the time only had a few spells at a time (Vance, at least several other S&S books, Gandalf), but the powerful spells they did have could do really gonzo things that were eventually off the charts
• To "balance" things (and maybe go with zero to hero) wizards were really useless to start, but at the high levels were awesome
• Playing a low level wizard "kind of sucked", and cantrips and going to d6 from d4 hitpoints helped a lot in 3e and later
• Starting in 3e the books at least formally present things through high levels (getting full hit dice all the way), even if most people still don't get there
• The representative literature about fighters has shifted from Conan and Fafhrd to Wuxia and Anime
• People who liked fighters back when might think Wizards are unbalanced now and people who like the new wizards and are into the new representative literature might wonder why D&D fighters are lame compared to the wizards and new literature

Does that have a ring of truthiness? Or have I glossed or misrepresented something major? Also checking with @Vaalingrade .

 

[Golroc]

On average, an AI language model (with relevant training) produces crunch (ie expansion rules elements) every bit as good as most major publishers*. Especially if provided with a quality (homebrew) creative/fictional foundation to base it on.

* this is not a jab at the designers working at these companies, who are almost always capable of producing much more and much better content than what commercial priorities allow them.

 

[Reynard]

No, the issue is more that casters, particularly out of combat, make non-casters largely superfluous. And, it's not like casters are getting interrupted out of combat. That and non-casters just lack anywhere near the options that casters have. There's nothing a non-caster can do that a caster can't. But there are a thousand things even a low level caster can do that a non-caster isn't allowed to regardless of level.

Part of this hinges on pressure. Can the caster afford to burn spells on the things other characters can do without wasting a resource? Is it safe to have the wizard yelling out verbal components? Can the party risk the time to rest constantly so the wizard can replenish?

One thing that informs all this is the nature of the party's activities. Specifically, are they crawling through a dungeon, moving through hostile territory, or traveling in relative safety. When the party has one encounter per day, casters shine a lot brighter than when the party is pushing hard through the dungeon to avoid wandering monster checks.

 

[Jd Smith1]

They did that sometimes- that’s a one time investment. Not only that, many countries place limitations on owning real estate by foreign citizens and corporations.

Buying ingredients from local suppliers, OTOH is an ongoing flow of cash.

They do that wherever possible, and the rent they collect from the franchiser is the cash flow foundation of the corp. Buying local is more a myth; they are set up in regions, and try to buy within a region to reduce costs. Overseas stores generally get most of their non-produce food from the US.

 

[Hussar]

People who liked fighters back when might think Wizards are unbalanced now and people who like the new wizards and are into the new representative literature might wonder why D&D fighters are lame compared to the wizards and new literature

I'm not sure I buy this one actually.

Back in the day, Fighters were the undisputed damage kings. If you wanted to kill stuff really quickly, you played a fighter. Magic Users, at high levels, might come close, but, nobody else was even in the same league. Plus, the monsters died much, must faster as well. Your 2e fighter could drop 7 or 8 HD monsters in a single round (not likely, but possible) without magic. Meaning that your fighter was absolutely death on toast.

Then, 3e rolled around and the fighter types got absolutely hosed. Fighter damage was cut in about half. Then, the monsters got about 3 times more HP. Then, rogues and clerics were bumped up to be competitive with fighters in damage output. The fighter might have had an edge, but, not by a whole lot. And, of course, the wizards just got all the limiters taken off.

Now, 5e has somewhat reined in wizards to an extent. You generally don't need a spreadsheet to run a high level caster in 5e. But, the fighters are still no better than anyone else at combat. And all the other classes still get all sorts of ribbons and bonuses out of combat.

The whole "mythical fighter" thing is also very much a reaction to the fact that people are finally (after many, many years) starting to play higher level D&D. In 3e and earlier, games ended at 10th level. There was virtually no support for play over 10th. But, now, lots of people have hit low double digits. Play most of the Adventure Paths and you'll generally hit around 15th level or so. Suddenly, it gets really glaring that the non-magic classes are really falling behind.