TommySalami

Friendly reminder that you don’t need to buy WotC/Hasbro products to play 5e. The 5e publishing ecosystem is pretty strong and there are lots of options so that you don’t have to get rid of your old books. Level Up Advanced 5e has free PDFs online of their whole books, but the books are fantastic quality. Tales of the Valiant is coming soon, and there is a huge catalog of Kobold Press content before that. And then there are hundreds of smaller presses that also support the ruleset. I haven’t gotten any WotC products in years even before the OGL, mainly because quality seemed to be taking a turn, but there is still great content out there.

This, the OGL, the Pinkerton incident, the continued decline in quality products. Talk about squandering the opportunity of a lifetime with the renaissance of D&D.

On a whim, I decided to start a Total War Empire campaign as Poland-Lithuania. I saw a meme about playing games in your Steam library instead of buying something on sale, and I felt justifiably attacked.

It is a fair criticism. There is a limited number of historical conflicts/periods with multiple factions, large troop structures, etc. Do they continue to refine past entries or explore more into fiction and mythology? Personally, I’d love to see a more finely polished Medieval, but I think it is more likely that they will follow the Warhammer model and do more licensed products.

I like it, because it can also work as a conspiracy. The initial quest giver can be an evil lieutenant posing as an ally. The loop can be hinted at by clues in the dungeons themselves. Maybe there are errors left behind that hint at a dungeon/s they’ve already finished. I could see a lot of ways to mess with the PCs.

Not Australian, but looking through the proposal, it seemed pretty basic. It’s pretty sad that even a relatively toothless measure like this couldn’t pass. Though I’m definitely not throwing stones, I’m in America.

If you haven’t played the Robocop: Rogue City demo yet, you have 10 seconds to comply. Your move, creep.

Especially after he backtracked on the compromise with Biden and then loudly announced he would not concede anything to Dems. The guy went to Home Depot and bought the rope himself. Like, it wasn’t going to end well for him either way, but it isn’t sad. He constructed this situation, he shouldn’t be surprised it blew up in his face.

A damn shame. KOTOR 1 & 2 are still, IMHO, one of the greatest Star Wars stories/experiences. I’d really love for something to revisit the time period.

“Reset the board!” 14 0 days since a classified document leak

Only? The US accounts for 40% of all military spending in the world. We are at nearly 3 times second place, China, $876 billion to $290 billion. Considering the US has the most billionaires and compilation of billionaire wealth, I really don’t think GDP is the great earmark you are portraying it as.

Definitely see what you saying. Some yellow flags in there, but it ultimately seems supportive of progressive, ethical moves by government. Demos seems to be very focused on this issue. As a Michigander, Big Gretch has been doing a great job and I’m really happy to see the state put its money where its mouth is.

No worries! I’m a big fan of FROM and you are absolutely right, they just aren’t for everyone. I honestly wish more people would see that a game can be good but you don’t have to enjoy it. That’s me and a lot of strategy games like Crusader Kings.

I’m not going to hunt down formal sources for these, because they’ve been pretty widely reported on, especially back during the 2022 election. We know COVID disproportionately affected older, conservative communities. In less populated, more rural areas, even a few dozen more deaths could affect outcomes. We know youth turnout was higher than in previous years, and certain Republicans’ push to raise the voter age is a reaction to that. Biden is still challenging SCOTUS about student loans and is currently working on getting Medicare pricing for lots of medications. I’m from Michigan, and our state government has recently passed a lot of progressive policies, same for my local city and many of the cities near me. So there may be some bias there, but there have also been a lot of public success in Minnesota and Hawaii. And Jim Inhofe just retired, and between McConnell’s freeze and Feinstein rambling during a vote, it’s clear these elderly reps are having health issues. They can’t live forever.

I empathize with what you are saying, but the red wave didn’t happen because a bunch of Republicans died from COVID and youth voters mobilized in big numbers. The best solution I see is, as someone else said, changing our voting system to ranked choice. It will create more freedom of choice, parties will have to develop stronger platforms, and it will be easier to stomp out fascists. And Biden has made some moves to help progressive causes, and there has been a lot of success on local and state levels. Even if that isn’t satisfactory, the old guard is shuffling off slowly but surely. It is a miscarriage of democracy that Diane Feinstein still has a seat, and the politicing over filling her space is doubly shameful. I would certainly hope that establishment Dems know how fragile their voter coalition is, especially after losing Roe after decades of doing nothing to codify it. As much as it is fuck around/find out time for the GOP, it’s put up or shut up time for Dems.

I hope you are right. More end-user freedom is a good thing and, if it is a matter of turning the tide, I’d love to see more tech companies competing to be the most accessible for repairs.

Philosophy Tube’s most recent episode explains “austerity” in the context of the UK’s public services and I gotta say, what an absolutely dumb shit, quintessentially British way to cannibalize your own society.

They need to get with the goddamn program and start actually making solid moves with clear results. Michigan and Minnesota have been successful in this recently, at least. The vast majority of establishment Dems haven’t fought for anything but the status quo for decades. That’s a fair percentage of the reason we are in this mess in the first place, because in their eyes even if Trump isn’t doing the right thing, he’s at least doing something different. It’s shitty logic, but it is hard to argue with when the alternative keeps being old white guys that don’t want to offend corporations.

I hope I have the wherewithal to maintain my convictions at that age. Perhaps that’s naivete, but I never became conservative, either.

To answer your question, most people aren’t against age limits. But the elderly are the single strongest voting population and the people already in power won’t do anything against their own interest without significant voter follow through.