System matters in that it frames what’s possible within its rules. Since it’s all just made up we can always ignore the rules, but that way lies calvinball and the ship of theseus.
In Fate, players can declare a story detail. They can say “it would be super cool if this library had a whole section dedicated to vampires.” Spend the fate point, and now it’s true.
DND just doesn’t have a concept of that. The idea that players can zoom out and influence anything outside their specific character is largely alien to it.
Like, you could let players make narrative suggestions in DND, but that’s not really something the system is doing.
Most people arguing about this are coming from an emotional place, so facts and truths don’t really matter. If gender in language is important to your in-group, that’s what matters. Not the history of language. Not the dictionary. The group believes this. If you reject your group, you’ll die alone. Or that’s what the brain would have you believe. We’re all a little susceptible to social influence on belief. Some people are just unwilling or unable to overcome it.
I’m going to ignore the bit about your friend for now.
I have had the kind of conversation where you try to change someone’s mind. That is, distinct from the more common kind on the Internet where you’re just fighting.
It takes a lot of time and energy. You need them to see you as a member of one of their in groups, typically.
I have had a couple friends who would consume a lot of right wing media, but we shared some things in common. One was also working retail, both were video game nerds. I think because we had those things in common, they saw me as a friend, someone in an in-group, and thus listened to me.
If I had just sent them a YouTube video, they probably would have rejected it. If a stranger did, almost certainly.
Unfortunately, when I was no longer in their daily life they sort of drifted back to what their dominant groups thought.
Sweden is infamous for having some of the highest taxes in the world, and yet the country’s tax agency is still one of Sweden’s most trusted institutions....
I have very mixed feelings on secret checks. One the one hand, they make a lot of sense, they seem like they really help roleplay and being in character, and they generate suspense and uncertainty....
I mostly roll on the table and tell players the target numbers.
Part of that is I don’t want them to think I’m fucking with them if I roll really hot or really poorly. Sometimes the dice just want to spite the players, and I’m not going to unilaterally fudge it.
I’ve also taken to telling the players what the target number is before they roll. Part of that is because it feels bad at a player to be like “17!” And the dm goes “ooh sorry I was looking for an 18.” I’m like, “were you, though? Or did you just want me to fail?”
But also I’m playing Fate now, where players have more clear tools for adjusting their rolls. “I’m gonna follow the guy, quietly, and see where he takes the package. Stealth? I rolled a… two. /looks at character sheet/. Ah, but I’m a Jaded Detective, I know a thing or two about being followed. How about I spend a fate point on that and bump it up?”. That mechanic doesn’t work as well if the targets or rolls are secret.
I think I played maple story in like 2007 and it was garbage then. My excuse at the time was I was broke, and there weren’t many good free games out. Path of Exile wasn’t until 2013. Same with Warframe. Huh I never realized those came out the same year.
I realized zoom’s noise canceling or whatever is such that it doesn’t usually pick up on music playing in meetings. It’s usually doom (eg: spaceslug) or synth pop (eg: cold beat).
A resolution called for ending the ability to vote for U.S. senators. Instead, senators would get appointed by state legislatures, as it generally worked 110 years ago prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913....
It brings to mind that popular post that said conservatism has one value: there must be in groups the law protects but does not bind, and outgroups that the law binds but does not protect.
I get pushback at work about how I need to “be better at working with incomplete or vague instructions”, but “if it’s not in the spec the behavior is undefined, and you get what you get” is unacceptable.
Still mildly peeved about when product complained a list wasn’t sorted alphabetically. They’re lucky the order was deterministic at all
This exception has never made sense. If abortion is murder (it’s not) then it doesn’t matter if the would-be baby was conceived via rape. You can’t murder a 20 year old because they were conceived illegitimately.
It’s just a way to get fence sitters to side with the anti-abortion people
I think it’s kind of funny that this comment and the “grow the fuck Up” comment were sort of saying the same thing, but this one was way kinder.
Anyway. Yeah I kind of agree. Honestly I down vote some stuff for just being too negative. Like there was a comic the other day about life being hard with the punch line implying the guy should hang himself. Nope. Don’t need that in my life.
I think part of it might be a big US audience, and health care is pretty bad here. I imagine there’s a lot of untreated anxiety out there.
Also maybe people who aren’t depressed or crippled by anxiety were out and about on the weekend.
But I don’t know. The negativity and wallowing isn’t really content I want to see, but the Internet isn’t just for me.
Basic income pilots nationwide have seen noteworthy success, despite conservative opposition.
Well, conservatives have bad ideas on just about everything so that’s not surprising. If all the conservatives just went away we could have a much nicer world like overnight.
I feel like the process of getting the code right is how I learn. If I just type vague garbage in and the AI tool fixes it up, I’m not really going to learn much.
“One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency...
These stories will keep happening as long as Republicans are allowed to keep mixing church and state.
These will continue happening so long as Republicans are allowed to be in government. Church is an excuse, not the cause. They’re bad people who should not be allowed to govern.
“…These kinds of private conferences, where business and cultural leaders interview one another free from the pesky, prying grasp of the press or public, are becoming increasingly common.”
Add stuff to the scene that’s not just damage. Stuff that splits their attention and requires some strategic thinking.
Mooks are doing a ritual that will have bad results if it’s completed in two rounds.
Mooks flee to sound the alarm/get reinforcements
innocent hostages are at risk
some of them are fake hostages and will attack if "rescued"
some of them are actually innocent, but are dominated/acting against their will
any number of gimmicks that force people into smaller groups.
the boss is tangible only to one player at a time. Like that time in bg2 when I cast time stop and everything stopped except my wizard, and the demogorgon.
the boss is split into X parts that need to be killed at the same time , in separate rooms.
Also, playing Mage and Fate most recently it’s been really refreshing not having any of these DND problems.
I was playing Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition. I really like it but it’s not super popular, so finding players is hard.
It sounds like it has the same way of modeling health. Adults have 5 + stamina health boxes. So your average person is 7, the strongest mortal in the world is 10. You have a pretty good idea that if you do nail that guy with a rifle shot, he’s not getting up.
DND especially was frustrating to me when it was like “ok a veteran soldier… Does he have 10 HP? 20? 50? One attack? Two?”. There’s like no way to reliably reason from the narrative to the rules.
I eventually got a cocktail of mods that made fallout4’s progression bearable to me. A headshot on anyone without a helmet was always deadly, armor mattered, hp barely scaled with level. Endurance and its perks were more important.
The best solution for me is probably combining horizontal progression with some constraints in stats.
Imagine the toughest guy possible. Pick some numbers to represent that. Maybe 200 hit points for a simple, familiar, system. Now figure out what sort of abuse he can survive. 10 handgun shots to the stomach? Ok, let’s say a handgun does 20 damage. Then just keep going. How many shotgun blasts? Don’t let stats exceed the caps casually. This should hopefully let you avoid the “naked bandit takes forty shots to put down” problem.
The other part is to focus on horizontal progression. You start as a dude who can fire a pistol. Later you learn rifles. Then first aid. Repair. A trick shot to trade damage for accuracy, or the other way around. You’re gaining new stuff to keep things interesting, but your numbers aren’t really going up up up. Guild Wars 1 is probably one of the best examples of this.
Thinking about it, I really liked Sekiro. It had very limited stat progression, but it was also winnable without ever increasing your stats. Games like fallout4 tend to create stat checks where you’re losing because your numbers, not your tactics/execution. That’s deeply unsatisfying to me in a game pretending to be an action game. Like, in fallout 1 it feels better when my level 2 dude misses a shot. In fallout4 I clicked on his face he should be dead, but the numbers say no.
But to your last point: people do like progression. It let’s people feel like they’re improving without actually needing to improve.
How do systems matter?
Here are two blog posts in response to a video and it’s all about the old discussion if systems matter....
Pronouns (lemmy.world)
Why the Swedes love doing something that Americans hate (www.bbc.com)
Sweden is infamous for having some of the highest taxes in the world, and yet the country’s tax agency is still one of Sweden’s most trusted institutions....
Gobbo disappointment
How does your table handle Secret checks? Do you like them?
I have very mixed feelings on secret checks. One the one hand, they make a lot of sense, they seem like they really help roleplay and being in character, and they generate suspense and uncertainty....
Tarkov studio claims it actually doesn't have the server capacity for everyone who bought the game for $150 to play its upcoming PvE mode, still wants players to pay extra (www.pcgamer.com)
After 10,000+ hours grinding, MapleStory's first level 300 player slams the brakes at 299.99 to rant about the MMO and then quit, all on a dev-promoted stream (www.gamesradar.com)
Truth (infosec.pub)
Meta spent $4.3 billion on its VR division in three months, and made *checks figures* $440 million in return (www.pcgamer.com)
http tutorial (lemmy.ml)
The WA GOP put it in writing that they’re not into democracy (www.seattletimes.com)
A resolution called for ending the ability to vote for U.S. senators. Instead, senators would get appointed by state legislatures, as it generally worked 110 years ago prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913....
Bill to allow arming Tennessee teachers with guns heads to the governor's desk (www.newschannel5.com)
A bill that would allow some Tennessee teachers to carry a gun at school is heading to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk....
The Earl of Sandwich would not approve (startrek.website)
Think of the CHILDREN! (lemmy.ml)
Trump VP contender Kristi Noem says no exceptions for rape or incest in abortion ban (www.independent.co.uk)
Post Roe v Wade abortion law in South Dakota only allows for exceptions to save life of mother...
deleted_by_author
Seattle gave low-income residents $500 a month no strings attached. Employment rates nearly doubled. (finance.yahoo.com)
A Seattle basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month, nearly doubling employment rates....
AI nowaday is like Bluetooth 20 years ago: they put it everywhere where it's almost never useful
Emergency rooms refused to treat pregnant women, leaving one to miscarry in a lobby restroom (apnews.com)
“One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency...
Conferences for the .1% breed skepticism (www.bloomberg.com)
“…These kinds of private conferences, where business and cultural leaders interview one another free from the pesky, prying grasp of the press or public, are becoming increasingly common.”
God forbid we try to make the game anything but a cakewalk (ttrpg.network)
Fallout 4 jumps to No.1 across Europe following TV show launch (www.gamesindustry.biz)