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I wasn't thinking in terms of ideas as specific as nazi-analogous xenophobes, but more in terms of a general sweep. Different peoples represent different functions of the human psyche (e.g Tolkien orcs=wanton mechanized brutality; hobbits=inhabitants of a bucolic idyll. ). Or the Star Trek...

I have no doubt I'm in the minority here, but... I have no problem casting different groups (whichever nomenclature you prefer) with certain embedded characteristics. I think that - for me - the game works best as a kind of psychomachian, mythopoeic, anthropopsychic, ethnopsychic allegory...

I was introduced to D&D in 1981-2, after I had read The Hobbit, LotR and Silmarillion. I hadn't really branched out into other fantasy literature; rather I had read Tolkien twice and was probably on my third pass by then. Up until the age of 10, LotR had been a mysterious tome sitting on the...

Another vote for Blakes 7 (sic - the original title sequence was missing an apostrophe). A relatively obscure show I feel obliged to commend is Survivors (1975-77): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072572/ Set after a global pandemic which kills 99% of the world's population. It was written by...

Me with my wife — who isn’t called Gertrude II.

Watched it this past weekend. Mostly enjoyed it, but was a little underwhelmed. I felt the pacing was a bit off, and didn’t really have much emotional investment in the characters. Ralph Fiennes was excellent, but that’s kind of a given. Felt more sympathy for the humanity of the infected...

28 Years Later I'll probably watch Naked Gun because Liam Neeson does pretty good deadpan, although I don't think he'll carry it as well as Leslie Nielsen. Even though their names map well phonetically - that must be why they chose him to play Frank Drebin's son. Brad Pitt driving cars doesn't...

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...