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Recent content by The Firebird

  1. The Firebird

    California bill (AB 412) would effectively ban open-source generative AI

    Not that familiar with your style but I use the LLMs a lot and I can clock this as generated text pretty rapdily. Hard to describe why--its not the em dashes or the use of italics alone, but those contribute. The diction generally is very reminiscent of the responses I get though. Note--I've...
  2. The Firebird

    Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

    No. He would only get paid if the Kickstarter royalties exceed the amount of outstanding refunds from his earlier failed Kickstarter, and GG committed to a limited print run such that the royalties won't hit that level. Some folks would say paying his refunds is paying his liability and so...
  3. The Firebird

    Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

    I'd like to think that the same kind message was achievable without that. I don't like the idea that the standard is "your personal life will be interrogated to make sure of your bona fides", and that that's just a requirement of being a creator. I think the escrow account seemed like enough to...
  4. The Firebird

    Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

    Nice of him to do it. Hopefully he won't get any blowback to the company. I think a lot of this stuff was clear from reading between the lines of his previous statements, and I hope that he's ok sharing his private life in this way. It can be hard.
  5. The Firebird

    Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

    I think he's doing something wrong. It's much better than either 1) actively publishing hateful content; 2) working with a creative who is hateful; or even 3) making the agreement with the understanding that bigoted individuals will benefit. Based on Goodman's agreement, the money is primarily...
  6. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    The stakes aren't how will the guard respond. They are how will the players get past the obstacles to reach their goal. In this case, one such obstacle is a guard on duty who doesn't like bribes.
  7. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    I missed this before but...I think this is not how I see this discussion. It's not about giving or withholding information from the players. It's about whether that information exists, whether it is true, prior to the players interacting with it.
  8. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Again, I don't think that means they aren't eliding. Eliding doesn't mean that play isn't about that or that we can't do anything detailed. A very crunchy combat system is eliding certain specific details about combat (whatever it doesn't simulate) at the same time it is about combat. In...
  9. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    The engagement roll is such a mechanic. Or not, in your view?
  10. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    Hmm this sounds exactly like 'the rules elide' to me. The point of that phrase isn't that we don't care about things we have mechanics for. It's that the rules allow us to adjudicate things we don't want to do adjudicate via conversation. In this case, we want to do it via dice to add tension.
  11. The Firebird

    Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter [UPDATED]

    Agree, this is all very reasonable. I think boycotting the product is reasonable. I think refusing to do business with someone on the grounds of those statements in reasonable. Maybe it's a mistake to suggest there's anything boycotts won't achieve. It can come across as being opposed to the...
  12. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    You're reading it way too narrowly. They don't end up with a list of keywords that code specific behaviors for NPCs. They play the NPCs as characters. We discussed this with an example before, but I don't recall seeing how it manifests (with a simple example) in your games. The argument takes...
  13. The Firebird

    D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

    -Hey GM why'd you make this ruling? -I don't need any spoilers to tell you--I decided the cliff was that way because X. -Hmm, but that seems inconsistent with your previous cliff ruling. How are they going to work in the future? Then the GM says: 1) you're right, I screwed it up. Thanks...
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