Recent content by jian

Though she does seem rather good about generation Z relationships, if this is anything to go by: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/15/sabrina-carpenter-gen-z-gender-divide

Back to another episode I didn’t see back in the day, which is Facets from season 3. This is all pretty interesting. Firstly, it’s well put together - the main plot of Jadzia meeting her previous hosts via her friends, and confronting the feeling that she wasn’t good enough to be bonded, is...

A hit traditionally means “everyone’s heard of it and has heard good things” and it definitely helps if it’s commercially successful. It’s so hard to work out these days whether something fits the first criterion, let alone the second. Media is so much more diverse and fragmented that it’s...

The Dogs of War What You Leave Behind And we’re done. I agree (again) with Avery Brooks - Sisko deserting his wife and unborn child and never coming back does the character dirty and I wish they hadn’t done it. That last speech of Garak’s seems a lot more relevant now. Back in the day (1999)...

Went back to Disney Plus this month to watch the latest season of Only Murders in the Building. Sadly the third episode was so aggressively stupid it hurts. On the other hand, not a total loss - King of the Hill has been a great palate cleanser.

Yes, that’s quite right and all covered in my initial post. If you use HP as metacurrency you’d have to rename them. It’s the idea of having HP (or health or whatever) as the same pool as metacurrency which I found interesting to discuss.

I think it’d be quite interesting to have a spell that inflicted damage based on the target’s HD or level, but I agree it’d be interesting to balance. I don’t think it’s obviously busted, as you put it. If you had a 3rd level wizard spell called lifeblast that did indeed inflict d6 damage per...

I think the question as originally posed is more along the lines of “if the original spell heals 1d8 + caster’s level in HP, is it more powerful or unbalanced if the house rule is that it now heals 1d8 + recipient’s level in HP?” That is a slightly more difficult question. It makes a 1st level...

What’s quite interesting is games that have reverse death spirals - you get more stronger the more wounded you are, so there’s some incentive to get a bit injured so as to unlock that. I think Tenra Bansho Zero does this, and it’s fairly fitting for a gonzo manga science fantasy samurai game.

Yeah, it’s a terrible episode in a whole bunch of ways, not least the moralising on both sides. It’s a really bad start to the Worf-Jadzia relationship and thankfully it’s never that bad again. But Let He Who is Without Sin is easily my least favourite DS9 episode. And yes, Worf is a terrible...

Finally watched it. Here’s what I loved: The original expedition was official, not “my launch got cancelled so I stole the rocket with my friends” (which I’ve always thought was a terrible plot point in the FF’s origin, to start their careers with an act of incredible irresponsibility, so I’m...

Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon*) is a lovely fantasy novel with a protagonist who's expert in poisons and a mystery that's a version of the Snow White story (there's a princess called Snow, mirrors, apples, and hearts, but mixed together quite differently). In that sense it's...

Sure, by “luck” I would be happy to mean “any version of luck, experience, magical blessing, and other form of plot protection you think works for the character and the game.” As for the Gary quote I suspect I’m actually remembering Old Geezer’s quotes on the subject here on ENWorld...

I think I’d only recommend it for things where you don’t take damage - so the poison inflicts Disadvantage to all checks (5E) or kills you (1E), that sort of thing. I agree it’s not a great fit for saving for half damage from a fireball. If one was going to use HP as luck to affect rolls, I...

This is a really good point, because what is CLW if you’re not closing a wound? At the very least you’d have to rename it to Minor Blessing or something.