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I never ran a published scenario after The Isle of Dread for literally 30+ years. But when I started running games using a VTT (Fantasy Grounds, specifically) I found it easier to use pre-published and converted to FG modules. I ended up hating it. I am back to running homebrew, which honestly...

My favorite nonsense time travel.theory is that it is all already factored in. That is, anything the time travelers "change" was already "history." It completely undermines the genre and doesn't make a lick of sense, but it makes for good twists.

Right. The point is there has to be some pretty arbitrary constraints, which strongly ssuggests time travel just isn't possible. In the universe we have, the math is complex, but the rules seem to be pretty simple.

Right, but the important part is that if panspermia is found to be true here, we are stuck with having no idea how common it might be for life to arise independently, and therefore no additional information on how abundant it might be in the wider universe. But if we find that microbial life...

Okay. But my point is that the probability that two independently evolved DNA systems would look similar is vanishingly small, thus my assertion that finding such would strongly suggest a common cause or ancestor.

Which means only travel to the future, with no potential to interact with the past. Imagine you opened a stargate to a planet 5 light years away, 100 years in the future. An astronomer could pass through the gate and use very sensitive telescopes to detect the composition of Earth's atmosphere...

We have discovered that there are over a million potential nucleic acids. The way our biology worked out was a fluke. It would be very strange if another system looked like ours.

I actually don't know that I have ever run or played in a "pirate campaign." We have had bits of campaign fall into the subgenre (either fighting pirates and/or PCs owning a ship; never PCs being honest to goodness pirates). I am not actually sure I would enjoy such a campaign -- except that, as...

The way our DNA makes base pairs is not particularly special. It would be astoundingly unlikely that two independently evolved forms of life would have the same base pair system. Even the component molecules are not the only ones that can be used to form DNA.

I was waiting for this thread to intertwine itself with the time travel one...

AI doesn't "understand" anything. Whatever else one might think about AI, none of the models we have today are anywhere near "thinking" machines. They are predictive machines at best, spitting our own knowledge back at us.

I think the most important question regarding an ancient Martian life is whether it has the same DNA as Earth life. if so, that essentially proves panspermia. I imagine who seeded who (or if there was a third party) would be long debated. But if Martian life was an entirely different lineage...

I mean, I think it is a good thing. Bethesda's lawyers might have a different opinion.

There is no official Skyrim RPG. People making unofficial ones and those being popular may well inspire Bethesda to get one made, which is good for everyone involved. Win-win. Also: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/486419/shadowrim-a-shadowdark-setting?src=hottest_filtered

It's interesting: I only calculate my own enjoyment when trying to figure out if it was "worth it." Not that I don't care if my players are having fun, but I am the only one that paid so I am measuring only against my own entertainment. Foe most TTRPGs, it is super easy to "get my money's...

I don't know who needs to hear this*, but you can edit your thread subject lines. *that is a lie; I do know.

Ah, the early 00s.

Has anyone run an actual piracy campaign -- that is, robbing merchant ships and holding nobles for ransom and other crimes?

Why are the rules different for finding secret doors than finding traps? What is the design philosophy and intentional mechanical abstract that supports this difference? Or is it possible that it is based completely on Gygaxian whim and we should not take it seriously, like, at all?

What's interesting is that in Daggerheart, "environment" actually means "situation."