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  1. Umbran

    Diamond Distributors Asks Bankruptcy Court For Ownership of Publishers' Consignment Inventory [UPDATED]

    From what I have read, there isn't a single answer to that. Publishers will have to shop around among smaller distributors, and maybe one of them will end up getting most of the business.
  2. Umbran

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

    This all started with you asking if it would be weird to have folks talking about the effects of Special Relativity while on a FTL craft. Thus: the hole that Special Relativity saying you cannot go faster than light doesn't speak to what happens when you warp space around you.
  3. Umbran

    Spoilers Interstellar

    Well, what are we aiming for - plausible for a fiction, or good science? They are in no way the same. Good science does not follow the rule of cool, and so is most often pretty boring, compared to what might be plausible in a fiction.
  4. Umbran

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

    "This is a thing that people get paid a lot of money to do professionally, and I have not been involved with that profession," would be a clue. "This is a thing covered in graduate level classes in university, and I didn't even take bachelor's level courses in the subject," would be another...
  5. Umbran

    Spoilers Interstellar

    You are a tiny, tiny bit of mass added to the whole back at the event horizon. At that point you are inside what the universe sees as the black hole. And nobody knows what happens at the singularity - I mean that pretty literally, that's a "dividing by cosmic zero" level of undefined. We...
  6. Umbran

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

    With respect, I'm not so sure it is that clear at all. I think authoring can be presented such that it is an activity one can become accustomed to without breaking immersion. The primary element in not breaking immersion to author would likely be that the authoring should in response to...
  7. Umbran

    Spoilers Interstellar

    Your belief, though, doesn't impact whether that bit is good science. Gargantua, the black hole in the film, per Kip Thorne is about a hundred-million solar masses - of a size we'd call a "supermassive black hole". The tides at the event horizon are not large, and one could totally step across...
  8. Umbran

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

    I was missing the point. I still don't really agree with what I now understand to be your point. It isn't all that hard to figure out if you're gonna gaff it.
  9. Umbran

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

    Internet discussion, however, is under no onus to keep to commonly observed phenomena, and tends to drive to polar extremes.
  10. Umbran

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

    The separation becomes obvious when you think about how the game exists within a real world - and the contract of the table does not apply to those not at the table. There's about 8 billion people to whom it does not apply. It only becomes valid to those who have agreed to play. Like, if I'm...
  11. Umbran

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

    Well, "need" is doing some heavy lifting there. In fiction, no outside force MAKES the author(s) have to jump into anything. The authors are the only ones who make choices or impose restrictions. The authors choose to make the plot dependent on details. It follows then, that there is no...
  12. Umbran

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

    Myth! https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coriolis-effect/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/
  13. Umbran

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

    I don't read it that way. I feel he said that, no, the GM doesn't have to accept every player suggestion, but it is good for the GM to have space from which they can consider player suggestions seriously, before ruling yes or no. There is "The GM predetermines it all, no questions will be...
  14. Umbran

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

    I'd say that either 1 or 2, taken as stated and absolute, would be a non-starter for me. I would not accept that position from my employer, much less be something I want in a leisure entertainment activity. The third seems to me more like wishful thinking on the GM's part - the amount of...
  15. Umbran

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

    I think that's an overstatement. In the simplest form - I don't generally run games online. The digital world is not a source of infinite players for me.
  16. Umbran

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

    I am not sure about this. When we speak of "THE social contract" on this site, we are usually talking specifically about the social contract around the game you're in. That contract does not kick in until you accept the offer. It cannot exact a toll if you reject the offer, any more than a...
  17. Umbran

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

    You stipulated, "You like long tedious rules debates. My group does not. " You only know my behavior on internet message boards, and chose to extrapolate that to game and table management. I'm making clear that this is inappropriate. Mature adults, whenever possible, pick appropriate times...
  18. Umbran

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

    This calls up the same basic question for the author: "If I cannot write confidently on this, should my plot/narrative hinge on the details of its operation?"
  19. Umbran

    Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 3 Viewing (Spoilers)

    Except... stopping someone from mucking around with humans is out of character for the Q we know.
  20. Umbran

    The Fantastic Four: First Steps - Official Teaser Trailer (2025)

    I cannot speak to hyperbole I did not hear. The ads made it look cool. It was cooler than that. Not yet. End of August seems to be what online sources are guessing.
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