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I don’t have any skin in this game philosophically, I’m pointing out differences in usage and reasonable inferences which can be drawn from words. To insist on a singular meaning for a word when it has a parallel negative connotation runs the risk of it being construed as a dog-whistle. To...

A disjunctive clause does not relegate the status of the second definition; both are coequal in applicability. Especially in a dictionary. "Arbitrary" is a primary definition of fiat according to Merriam-Webster. You are using fiat in an exclusive way. That's why people keep having problems...

As we're picking nits, Merriam-Webster gives the following primary definition of fiat: 1: an authoritative or arbitrary order: decree So there actually is a real difference in usage amongst posters in the Anglosphere here. And I think the pejorative connotation is pretty well established re: D&D.

B2, B4, S4, G1-3, D1-2, D3 - all at least 3 times.

This is an interesting discussion, although the tone is verging on acrimonious in places. I find myself unable to decide if there is a meaningful difference between "DM Fiat" and "DM makes a decision" as the two ideas seem - speaking with natural language - synonymous in my head. If the...

A long time ago (1E era) I internalized a few general principles with regard to level demographics: (1) PC-class characters comprise 1% of the population (2) 50% of PC-classed characters are Fighter-types, 25% Rogue-types, 15% divine casters, 10% arcane casters (3) The prevalence of any given...

There's still a good chance that Sauron's captivity in Numenor will be portrayed - although I'm confident it will be bungled, like the rest of the show. (I've expressed my issues with RoP in other threads - at length, quite forthrightly and unapologetically - and alienated a number of posters in...

I seldom buy coke, but when I do it has to be in the little glass bottles and made with cane sugar and not corn syrup. I like it ice-cold, but not over ice - which dilutes it unnecessarily. It's then a delicious treat. Just like B/X. /runs and hides.

Anton Chigurh nowhere to be seen.

Sure. But that’s not what I replied to. This is what I replied to: Which is why I wrote: Because, regardless of the metaphysics, the Babylonians understood that the Moon was blocking the light of the Sun.

I don’t really think this is accurate. The ancient Babylonians understood well enough in the Second Millennium BCE that when the Moon’s path crossed that of the Sun then an eclipse would occur - to the extent that they could predict them years in advance. But such events were still...

Many of these replies seem to regard celestial bodies in their proper, astrophysical sense rather than in their mythic sense (which might be completely different). The question might be better posed as "Do the characters inhabit a world where celestial phenomena follow the same rules as ours, or...

Unless you constantly track the position of celestial bodies, I can't see a reason for an eclipse to not occur. Instead of thinking about causality - i.e. the wish making something happen - maybe it's more useful to understand the wish as being an alignment with, or a synchronistic expression...

A few observations, FWIW: I think economic predation and imperial aspirations go hand-in-hand; the Assyrians were particularly good at it, of course - which is why they were such successful empire-builders. In its defense, during its archaic/Middle Bronze period, Assur was the first polity to...

While they may not be synonymous, they are certainly continuous - it is not readily apparent where culture ends and religion begins. Both terms have very fluid boundaries. They might best be viewed as overlapping fields; neither can be defined satisfactorily, and each informs the understanding...

Tarzan’s moral compass - his innate capacity to determine right from wrong - is entirely a function of his “superior” genetic heritage; white and aristocratic - and he is finally reconciled with his gentility to boot. Burroughs was entirely capable of, at times, subverting/inverting the...

ERB was a supporter of eugenics who openly called for the extermination of “moral imbeciles” in a column he wrote for the Los Angeles Times - before Hitler made a similar demand. The Tarzan stories consistently depict Black Africans as superstitious, and Arabs as scheming and grasping. He...

I think that experience may have been table-dependent or group-dependent; I knew a lot of DMs in the 1E era who meticulously detailed NPCs according to the same rules as PCs. Official products were certainly erratic and inconsistent. Maybe those of us who drew inspiration heavily from products...

It has nothing to do with setting logic. It is about having a consistent imagined mechanical sub-reality; a common, interoperable design language between PCs and NPCs. These are not the same thing. Setting logic is always desirable; mechanical transparency between PCs and NPCs is an aesthetic...