Recent content by giant.robot

Concern about the energy uses for GenAI are disingenuous at best and insipid at the worst. Computers use electricity. The CPU cycles and thus power used to generate this forum post and transfer it over the Internet and then render on your screen are no more useful than CPU/GPU cycles used to...

That's only interesting if you account for all the electricity has ever used in order to draw a picture or write a paragraph. It takes less than a cent worth of electricity for my laptop to generate a picture with Stable Diffusion. My power comes entire from solar so there's very few negative...

A small clarification, you made this point but I didn't find it clear in the description: when the GenAI is choosing the probability of the next word, it's calculating the probability of the next word in relation to the current sequence of words which includes the prompt. As the sequence changes...

To expand on this a bit. If you built a small AI that used only integer math, a fully deterministic pRNG, and a small training set the determinism of the system would be evident. Such a GenAI wouldn't necessarily be useful but it would show the determinism from first principals. The issue with...

I voted for hating it. That's not because the system is bad or I don't understand why people like it, it's just not for me. I'm not a fan of tables even though I understand why they exist in Rolemaster. If your GM isn't really well versed in the rules and has a bunch of tables handy I found it...

Here's a couple more "probably won't play again" games from my shelves that I don't dislike, I just don't think I'll ever find interested players: James Bond - Ok game but really only good for playing James Bond™ thought there's some general spy/thriller material. FASA Star Trek - My patience...

I was reorganizing someone of my books and laughed at a few I own that I'm just never going to play. Some I tried to play at some point but for whatever reason bounced off the system. Others I read and just didn't even try to play. I don't necessarily want to get rid of them because there's...

I find the idea that smartphones ruin horror games a bit silly. The idea presumes that smartphones (and the Internet) work in ways they clearly do not. 1. Consumer cameras have been a thing for more than a century. Pictures of eldritch horrors aren't magically more effective from an iPhone than...

Whereas my collection apparently is robust and awesome. Thanks a lot, ADHD. Just game in print, to say nothing of books per game, I have a lot of these listed. I've played at least one game of most of the systems I have in print. Only a few have led to multiple sessions. But at least I've...

Weird History/Modern Urban Fantasy - I've found this is a good way to get players interested because it's the modern world they live in but now with this new secret lore applied on top. I also don't need to build a whole world, just the new gameable bits. I'd include conspiracy stuff in this as...

I have definitely used my GURPS library for more non-GURPS games than actual GURPS games. It's why I still have a shelf of 3E books. They're great references for all kinds of games.

Maybe look at a Social stat like in Traveller or even a separate track of Social Points that can be removed or recovered during the game like HP. A social attack damages SP while good social rolls can recover it. Certain activities can be gated on the amount of current SP, a social attack at the...

Just to throw an idea out there: the "tavern brawl" could be replaced by a duel, either physical or a duel of words. A verbal duel, I bite my thumb...but not at thee, could set the same overall tone as a brawl. Both sides insulting each other as obliquely as possible while staying within the...

The only GURPS edition of PD I am aware of is a 4th edition version. If they ever published a 3rd edition version I never saw it. I also didn't realize there were two D20 versions. I'm certainly no expert on any of the editions of the game. I like the SFB universe but I've never been super...

Leading Edge. You'd only be able to get through a single round of combat per game session. A single combat could last months. Everyone would save money because there would be no way to get through a single game let alone through multiple adventures. /s Some part of me wants to like Phoenix...