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Fly, fools, fly! That's physically bad for you. The One Thing should warp your mind and tempt you to use it, especially when you're under pressure. It could be an artificial intelligence. Maybe it's a handheld computer with the hard-wired root password to the Orbital Mind Control Satellites...

The origin story of orcs might have been mentioned before, but you gave me an opportunity to consider its ethical implications more deeply, and you prompted me to look up details on LotR elves; I wasn't aware of the bit about black hair until yesterday. Also, the comparison between Firefly and...

Yes. Yes, you have.

I was responding to one person's description of one event, and inferring dynamics from context. In general, yes, there are many situations in which people ask each other about ancestry and heritage, routinely, with goodwill. Such as the friends you mention. There's a way of asking "Where are...

True. Also Italians, as you're well aware. Some Jewish people are white, some are not; the Neo-Nazis target both Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Not to mention Charles Trevelyan. I'll just stop right there.

You have your opinion, I have mine. I say that the association between fair-skinned people and good people, runs EXACTLY as deep as racism. If I showed you 100 photos of people, chosen randomly from the 7 billion humans, and asked you to sort them, in order, from Best Human to Worst Human...

People whose ancestry and features have never put them on the short end of a power dynamic, are comfortable exploring the minor variations within their genetic common ground... and that's different from the comfort level of those whose ancestors would have (in the USA) been on the short end of...

Here's a significant difference, in the course of that comparison: In JRRT's setting, when Morgoth tortures and corrupts elves, their physical appearance changes. On the input side: elves are "the fairest creatures in Arda". The Quenya word "Vanyar", translated as "fair", refers to their...

Hello, Bedrockgames. For clarity and context: I’m not calling you a racist. I didn’t even need you telling me about your marriage, or how you’ve voted (which, by the way, I discourage, because how each of us votes is “political”, it’s quite literally political). I’m not calling for torches and...

Thanks. My opinion and I hope Hussar agrees: Any examination of tropes - in D&D, in Firefly, and elsewhere - will be a LOT easier and a LOT safer, if you consciously and carefully refrain from raising the question of which authors we do or don't designate as racist. If you wanna call out...

The trailer features swastikas, so people are gonna think your LOTR story is a WWII analogy! The palm of the true Bhudda gives acceptance and compassion, perhaps defending but never harming. Similarly, the physical victories of LOTR were the necessary steps towards a moral victory, which...

I agree in spirit. If by "racist" you mean someone with conscious, intentional malice, then I agree in detail. No one here is taking a position along the lines of "the only good Eloi is a dead Eloi". I have what might be an oddball understanding on this topic. If you asked me "Riley, are you...

I was under the impression that you are deeply concerned - even afraid - about what might happen if anyone closely examines orcs in gaming for parallels with colonialist propaganda. You've expressed concerns that after such examination, we might set standards, and then impose those standards on...

Fighter 2, Sorcerer 5 allows this nova round: Action, cast Hold Person, and either use Heightened Spell (disadvantage on the save vs Hold Person) or Twinned Spell for two targets. Then you use Action Surge, and you cast Fireball, preferably with Empowered Spell. If the target(s) of Hold Person...

If you have Warlock 1+ and Sorcerer 2+, you can turn a spell slot into sorcery points, then short rest to regain pact magic spell slots. With enough short rests you'd end up fully recharging all your spell slots and all your sorcery points. Warlock 1 also gives you Patron features, that is...

I am open to arguments on the comparison between WotC orcs versus JRRT orcs. I predict they'll end with apples and oranges, unless someone can quantify colonialist tropes. That said, if someone took JRRT's passage about Bill Ferny's neighbor, and changed just the ending, from "looks half a...

Me too. In the first ten pages, I wanted to respond, but restrained myself because maybe someone else had already made the same point. I was pleased to reach page 44 and find the thread still taking responses. I expected it to have already ended with a mod's ruling of "Okay, we're done here." (I...

I take your word on your experience as a child. I grew up near San Francisco, and fellow children occasionally asked me, in a friendly tone, if I had mixed ancestry. The only one with an explicitly expressed negative reaction was an adult. (I have genes from Asia, but via the Trans-Bering...

True of the episodes. Variably true of the movies and novels, but that's irrelevant to your point. In D&D terms, Kirk and Spock begin each episode with full Hit Points (and spellcasting capacity or other ability uses, as appropriate). So for TRPG, that raises the distinction of a safe haven...

I've had the experience of someone pushing past my initial answer, to get at my ancestry, only a few times. *That* seems rude to me. The most recent time, the asker had friendly intent; she was an immigrant from Latin America to the USA, she thought I was another such immigrant (we were chatting...