@KeithAmmann@dice.camp
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KeithAmmann

@KeithAmmann@dice.camp

ENnie-winning author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing (Saga Press) and other stuff. Humanist, antifascist, curmudgeon. โœŠ๐Ÿป๐Ÿ˜ท๐ŸŒป๐Ÿ‰

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KeithAmmann, to random
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The program calendar listing gives me top billing for some reason, but if you attend the "Level Up: Writing and Gaming" panel at the American Writers Festival in Chicago this Sunday, May 19, you get to see not only me but award-winning SF writer Derek Taylor Attico, gaming/tech community organizer Keisha Howard of Sugar Gamers, and indie game writer/narrative designer Samantha Ortiz. That's way cooler than just me! (And it's free to attend!) https://americanwritersmuseum.org/program-calendar/american-writers-festival-level-up-writing-gaming/

KeithAmmann, to random
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Saw the letters GCNVIDE in Spelling Bee this morning and came up with the perfect name for an '80s action movie:

VENGICIDE

CultureDesk, (edited ) to food
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

A new genre of cookbooks is providing recipes for all your favorite TV and movie meals, from the hobbits' lembas bread and the pies of Azeroth to Monica's onion galette from "Friends." Some of the biggest of these books sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Esquire's Callum Bains talked to recipe developers about the challenges of re-creating fictional food, and why they think people are interested in eating it. โ€œItโ€™s just a whole other way to cosplay,โ€ says Elena Craig, whoโ€™s written cookbooks for the worlds of "Harry Potter," "Deadpool," and "Hocus Pocus." We want to know, what do you think is the most delicious TV show or movie? For the purposes of this poll, we're conflating series/franchises and individual movies and TV shows. Tell us in the comments if we've missed a really obvious one!

https://flip.it/nabwFi

KeithAmmann,
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@CultureDesk Tampopo. But Big Night is a strong second.

KeithAmmann, to DnD
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QsotN:

"Illusions are not my speciality. I do have a spell that can make the enemy look like they're on fire."

"I feel like there's an extra step in there we don't know about bat preservation."

[corvum voice] "How do you do, fellow mapach?"

dmdavid, to random
@dmdavid@dice.camp avatar

Help me anticipate some ways players could solve a problem in my d&d game by blocking unstoppable gears with an immovable wrench

Immovable rod
Wall of force
??

KeithAmmann,
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@dmdavid An instant fortress, tossed between the gear teeth and commanded to expand?

KeithAmmann,
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@dmdavid A sphere of annihilation, sent between the teeth and just eating them off as they rotate through.

Stone shape, if the gears are stone. If they're metal, use fabricate to turn them into samovars.

CultureDesk, (edited ) to food
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

The U.S. National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (aka Big Hot Dog) puts out a figure each year claiming to be the number of hot dogs an American eats annually and it's big. 70 hot dogs a year โ€” not including bratwursts, sausages, veggie dogs, or pigs-in-blankets! Defector's Kelsey McKinney wrote this exhaustive investigation on where the heck this number comes from. To augment her research, fediverse-style, we want to know roughly how many hot dogs you personally consume a year. Story may be paywalled.

https://flip.it/1lrQrK

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

@CultureDesk Almost none. I prefer Polish sausages.

NewsDesk, to USpolitics
@NewsDesk@flipboard.social avatar

Did you see that President Joe Biden joined the fediverse this week? Here are some interesting U.S. politics accounts to follow:

President Biden: @potus

Anti-Trump activist George Conway: @gtconway3

Independent journalist Judd Legum: @realjuddlegum

Political scientist Ian Bremmer: @ianbremmer

Politics writer Jason Sattler: @lolgop

And some Magazines from @Flipboard and our publisher partners:

2024 Elections from Axios: @2024

Politics from Semafor: @politics

Joe Biden from Axios: @joe

Politics from The Christian Science Monitor: @politics

Abortion from the Flipboard Politics Desk: @abortion

Immigration from the Flipboard Politics Desk: @immigration

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

@NewsDesk Biden joined Threads; not exactly the same thing. The link you include is an obvious parody account.

darjr, to DnD
@darjr@chirp.enworld.org avatar

Chris Cox talks about D&D in NPRs Here and Now https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/04/03/dungeons-and-dragons-hasbro

KeithAmmann,
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@WhatDoIKnowJR @bedirthan @DarkplaneDM @darjr In principle I agree, but speaking as a former journalist, here's the problem with that: The second answer isn't going to be any more enlightening than the first. It just becomes a game of chicken between a hectoring journalist and a filibustering interview subject. No point in starting a fight you know you're going to lose, especially if by doing so you're sacrificing the chance to ask other questions. Which might be equally pointed.

CultureDesk, (edited ) to television
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

Zoinks! Digital Trends has compiled a list of 10 TV shows that they say are overrated, from "Parks and Recreation" ("overly hopeful") to "The Bear" ("a great dramedy, but award shows and audiences keep treating it as Christโ€™s second coming, which it most certainly isnโ€™t."). Here's the full list. We want to know: Which of these do you think are overhyped, or just don't stand the test of time (choose as many as you like)? Tell us in the comments if there's another show that's critically adored but that you just can't see the appeal of.

https://flip.it/.1kuN9

KeithAmmann,
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@CultureDesk I'm surprised they hype Only Murders in the Building as an alternative to The Bear. There are moments when Only Murders is brilliant, but there are more in which it's painfully, unwatchably cringy.

bedirthan, to DnD
@bedirthan@dice.camp avatar

Why is it that none of the main settings for have canal cultures?
There may be single cities that are Venice-like, but there aren't the regional canal systems common to England, the Low Countries, Germany, France, Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, China, etc during the times that inspire our games,

Long boathouses!
Tow cables!
Backgrounds for operating the barges and such.
A peoples who swim a lot.

KeithAmmann,
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@bedirthan @Tim_Eagon Because RPGs were created in an era of highways.

When people want to imagine "wild" fantasy transportation systems, they come up with stuff like "WHAT IF DWARF RAILROADS" because trains are the last thing we remember using that aren't cars.

KeithAmmann, to random
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Searching through OneNote for something I thought I wrote down but apparently didn't, I just stumbled across the page "Curse of Strahd: The Musical," which sprang from a joke during a gaming session and which I optimistically thought I'd be able to bang out at a rate of one song per week.

KeithAmmann, to random
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

In an industry not known for providing minimally adequate customer service, Intuit continues to provide the worst customer service of all, by a truly astonishing margin.

KeithAmmann,
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The first software company I can find that offers decent double-entry bookkeeping software that I can buy rather than rent gets my business.

KeithAmmann, to DnD
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The choice of Nafas as the name of the noble genie in Quests from the Infinite Staircase is an interesting one!

(Note that this name would be pronounced NAF-ass, not nah-FAHSS.)

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

@bedirthan Yep: nafs, also meaning "individual," "psyche" or "self." And spelled the same as nafas in Arabic.

KeithAmmann, to random
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Finally getting to celebrate my birthday โ€ฆ just a couple of weeks late.

KeithAmmann, to DnD
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Previous githzerai have been, essentially, variations on a monk-ish shock attacker theme. Morteโ€™s Planar Parade gives us three new ones to look atโ€”the traveler, the uniter and the futuristโ€”and they continue the trend, sort of.

https://www.themonstersknow.com/planescape-githzerai-tactics/

KeithAmmann, to llm
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

[shocked face] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/04/ai-taxes-turbotax-hrblock-chatbot/

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Here's the most brazen graf from the article:

"H&R Block spokeswoman Teri Daley wrote in an email: 'Is it perfect, no. Will it ever be, probably not. Mainly because we have a very complicated taxation system with ambiguous wording.'"

Yes โ€ฆ which companies like TurboTax and H&R Block have lobbied to keep complicated and ambiguous in order to maintain demand for their tax prep services!

KeithAmmann, to DnD
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Question for players, especially those who also play :

In your experience, do you find that a bonus or penalty of ยฑ2 is enough to make a meaningful difference in the likely outcome of a saving throw in PF2?

KeithAmmann, to random
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Thank you, FTC. https://chicago.eater.com/2024/2/27/24084659/marianos-jewel-ftc-lawsuit-kroger-albertsons-chicago-illinois-kwame-raoul?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=Eater%2Fmagazine%2FAll+Stories

KeithAmmann, to DnD
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

Wizards of the Coast has announced that the new Monster Manual is coming out in 2025, the week right before my birthday.

Awww. They like me. They really like me.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1660-dungeons-dragons-turns-50-see-how-were-celebrating#2024-book-releases

bedirthan, to DnD
@bedirthan@dice.camp avatar

Last boost

Official 5e doesn't have a farmer background. That's such a large miss. There's no significant fantasy tale whose group doesn't include a farmer among the eventual heroes.

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

@bedirthan You don't think folk hero basically covers that ground? I mean, it comes with Animal Handling proficiency. It can be Robin Hood, but it can also be Farmer Giles of Ham.

KeithAmmann, to random
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

The second-oldest outstanding project in the list of projects I've backed just arrived today.

Estimated delivery was September 2021.

I'm still waiting on the one that was supposed to be done in January 2020.

KeithAmmann,
@KeithAmmann@dice.camp avatar

@bedirthan @Tim_Eagon Oof.

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