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  1. Umbran

    Judge decides case based on AI-hallucinated case law

    I worked a bit for the Census Bureau back in 2010, and they take prints for that. Umbran looks at the box of medical latex gloves he has for helping his wife with cleaning up messy cases, then looks back, and shrugs.
  2. Umbran

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

    My goals are the same as they are every night Pinky: Try to take over the world! Per what I've said - I need to be honest with myself about them. That does not mean I should open them up for public discussion, review, or critique.
  3. Umbran

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

    I am saying that descriptions of 1000 pages of headbutting that amount to, "It is all THEIR fault," are transparently inaccurate.
  4. Umbran

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

    You say this as if the entities at the table are not primates with very complex social dynamics, behaviors, and pressures upon them... ...or, perhaps, as if it is rhetorically convenient to ignore or dismiss the realities of real-world human social dynamics.
  5. Umbran

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

    And, I ask again, "Yes. So?" And by that, I mean that there's moments we each should ask ourselves, "Okay, why am I engaging here? What's my rhetorical goal here? Are my reasons and goals reasonable in this context? If so, are my words and approach actually going to move towards those...
  6. Umbran

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

    That is not an accurate description of the dynamics of this thread.
  7. Umbran

    What are your thoughts on roll-under/roll-high mechanics?

    It sounds like a solution in search of a problem. It is more complicated than many other mechanics, but I don't see what payoff we are supposed to get for that added complication. You don't say what genre you think will be well-served by such a mechanic, of what issue(s) you perceive with...
  8. Umbran

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

    Yes. So...? Like, it is no news flash that games with different rules play differently. That is precisely why we have them! If all games played exactly the same, it would follow that there would only be one game on the planet! While, of course, you get to choose what game is at your table...
  9. Umbran

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

    Mod Note: Your rhetoric here is hyperbolic, and not acceptable. This is a discussion on a messageboard. Nobody is getting "driven out of the hobby" by what is said here. If you cannot disagree with folks without accusing them like this, it is time for you to take a break from the discussion.
  10. Umbran

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

    Quite the opposite. It makes for interesting analysis - if your mind is open about what ought to be analyzed.
  11. Umbran

    What is adventuring?

    Hardly. "NPCs have goals, motivations, and desires that aren't directly murderous" is not "woke". Yeah, well, if your players really like the murderhobo vibe, it'd be a challenge. Beyond that, though, all it really takes is, get this - asking politely what others want - and ways to get by...
  12. Umbran

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

    The only people who can make demands or set expectations for what happens at your table must be sitting at your table. The rest is rhetoric. Cannot? Says... you? Or else... what, exactly? So, if you don't mind me asking - is drawing lines in the sand over what other people can and cannot...
  13. Umbran

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

    I have known that I am okay with mild funky cheese in the context of hot sauce for decades. But it is pretty specific and limited. If I said that in discussing food, and someone later made a dish for me, they'd be apt to assume they knew they could stretch the limits, and get it wrong. Saying...
  14. Umbran

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

    You're a lich. You'll be around for millennia, and spend centuries contemplating your shriveled navel. You're gonna forget stuff. Or, the next avatar of the God of Necromancy is gonna come through in some number of centuries, and will want to know how to pop out to pick up peanut butter and...
  15. Umbran

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

    Why do people write down important passwords and leave them on a post-it on their monitors?
  16. Umbran

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

    This comes across as either "whataboutism" or a simple failure to realize that humans aren't 100% consistent. I, personally, have no use for blue cheese, and have been quoted as thinking that funk is great in music, but not in food. Except... I just had buffalo chicken fingers with blue cheese...
  17. Umbran

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

    We might break this down in a more clear way. For the orc in a fight - all the abstracted events (dodging, footwork, and so on) that are resolved by the die roll happen between the action declaration and the action resolution. We have at least a plausible causal relation between the action...
  18. Umbran

    What is adventuring?

    Why wouldn't you be able to? What does time period have to do with it? Read a Dresden Files novel - those are chronicles of the character's adventures. You better, as "levels" are primarily a D&Dism. Most games don't have levels. Rephrasing: Can an RPG feel like a series of adventures if...
  19. Umbran

    What is adventuring?

    Sure. Note that you can get through the entirety of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight without engaging in any combat.
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