Empathy is great. It's what makes you not a total whackafuck. But if left unchecked it can also kill you.
Despite kindness in all of us, there are genuinely hostile actors out there, whether they mean it or not. Pacifism can and will get suicidal if taken to its logical extreme, so... be careful. Awight?
I've been contemplating my heel-face turn from a pessimistic edgelord to a proudly, albeit cautiously, optimistic person.
And it's not self-deceit. It's not like I've stopped seeing the terrible darkness at the bottom of everything. I just realized, over the years, that dwelling on it gets you nowhere, and it, sure as hell, does as much to help the situation as shouting at an ATM gets you richer.
Pessimism, much like loneliness, is intoxicating and highly addictive. It's poison, it's fucking heroin. It drains your willpower, it lulls you in that insidiously blissful sense of "there's no point an anything, and I'm superior to the plebs around me for seeing it", and "You don't have to do anything, what's the point, you're so clever". It kills you from the inside.
When you hear a person say "I have to deal with parents who, almost exclusively, are bell-ends", don't automatically assume they are a kid or a teenager.
@drq So characteristic scores become sins? That could fit into something on Dante's Inferno or something like that.
"My Sloth is at 6, so I take a big nap uwu"
Economists are chill as well, because they apparently are mostly unaware that their theories must be applicable to the real world, especially a slim portion of it which is evidently, painfully finite.
Big Fedi vs Small Fedi doesn't even have to be a debate, IMO. The federated model can happily accommodate both use cases.
Your instance or local constellation can be as "small" and quaint and well-kept as you want, or as "big" and serious and even commercial as you can afford.
It's absurdly adaptable, just as the Internet itself. Which is, you know, the point.
One issue I have with fighting systems in almost all RPGs (most games, actually) is that every fight must be until either you or your adversary kicks the bucket.
You stole a piece of meat at a bazaar and got caught? No, you don't just get beaten up and thrown in jail or out of town, you will be straight executed on sight.
Conversely, you mishappened upon a gang of less than friendly ruffians? No, they won't beg or surrender or run away when it becomes clear that it's them who mishappened upon you, they will fight to the bitter end, as if under the order from the supreme god of everything to either murderize your ass, or die trying.
It's not plausible. Vast majority of fights are not like that. Most of the confrontations involving force end with either running or talking. Not a lot of people want to get murdered or be a murderer, especially over things that don't matter much.
@drq
> You stole a piece of meat at a bazaar and got caught? No, you don't just get beaten up and thrown in jail or out of town, you will be straight executed on sight.
@drq I might add that the player characters seem to be only ones who are able to flee the battle.
And while I agree with you on the forcefulness of encounters, there are many cases that handles the conflict from the angle other than "kill or be killed".
In Elder Scrolls games, guards offer you to pay the fine/do the time in response to your transgressions. The "public execution" option is invoked by the your choice.
In HoMM III, if your army is strong enough, map mobs will resort to escape (unless you really want to fight them).