zdl

twostraws, 1 day ago to random

The most dangerous thing about ChatGPT is how utterly certain it is.

zdl, 2 months ago to folklore

Well, it looks like I'll be unsubscribing from all the @a.gup.pe groups I've subscribed to until the spam that comes from them disappears.

Pity. I found a lot of interesting people and conversations through them, but now they're a liability, not an asset.

@folklore and @tea are the two I'll miss the most. 💔

zdl, 2 months ago to random

If you want to see white supremacy in action, just take a gander at the #RejectedConfuciusDrafts hash tag "game".

zdl, 1 year ago to random

I'm watching the new D&D movie. Please pray for my soul if you're religiously inclined. This is going to hurt!

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 1 day ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/fantasy-wargaming.jpgThe Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming by Mike Monaco, is a free pdf download published at CMU Press under a CC BY-NC-ND license, and dealing with the history of the eponymous (if a bit incongruously titled) Fantasy Wargaming roleplaying game system. Yes, it turns out you can write whole books not only about DnD. At least if it’s something as weird as that game at least.

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/715s3mfunvl._sl1360_.jpg

The original game Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All (or just Fantasy Wargaming in some editions) was a 1981 book by Bruce Galloway, a clear variation on Dungeons and Dragons, based on Galloway’s home rules. Unlike it’s competition it was not afraid of using actual historical concepts like astrology and occultism in it’s descriptions, although it also was written so densely it was hard to make sense of it in any shape or form by someone not already familiar with roleplaying games. And, well, it was called Fantasy Wargaming.

Which made this a problem, as the game was published both in the UK and the US by mainstream publishers obviously trying to break into the nascent TTRPG market. The most available version was most likely the one published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which made the game available to many people who did not have any experience with roleplaying games before.

Unfortunately one has to say, as the game’s size (300pgs) and conceptual denseness made parsing the book quite a feat, meaning if people used this as an introduction to roleplaying, it might not have been very successful.

The Story of Fantasy Wargaming goes into this, and into the development of the game. It could have been a bit more thorough and a bit more critical, but for what it is it’s a nice look into the environment that created it. And well, it’s free.

(I learned about this book from an episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast which had the author on and talked about this project. Well worth a listen)

Rate this:

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/the-highest-level-of-all-the-story-of-fantasy-wargaming/

#book #dnd #Fantasy #gaming #news #osr #rpg #ttrpg #wargaming

image/jpeg

zdl, 3 months ago to ai

"#AI" image generation outrages. Prompts are in the alt text.

There are more than a few problems here, some far more insidious than others.

🧵 (1/n)

Prompt: A left-handed writer writing a novel. Depicted: a simulated pen-and-ink drawing of a white man sitting at a desk holding a deformed pen in his right hand as he writes something on a paper. The room is littered with books and papers. Commentary in thread.
Prompt: A left-handed writer writing a novel using the left hand. Depicted: a simulated pen-and-ink drawing of a man sitting at a desk holding a deformed pen in his deformed right hand as he writes something on a paper. The room is visibly austere with only a few papers on the desk. Commentary in thread.
Prompt: a left-handed woman writer writing a novel using the left hand Depicted: A simulated pen and ink drawing of a white woman sitting at a desk filled with books, next to a bookshelf similarly filled. She is writing with an upside-down dip pen using her right hand. Commentary in thread.

zdl, 11 months ago to random

I have a strange question, I'm sure, but why is it that #China putting restrictions on an #American tech company over security concerns is labelled 'economic coersion' but when multiple #Chinese companies were restricted over security concerns this was considered just hunky dory?

Oh, right. Racism. My bad. Carry on!

tintenteufel, 20 hours ago to ODnD German

Ganz prinzipiell: warum sollte mensch ein System aus diesem Jahrtausend spielen, welches das Spielgefühl der 1970er Jahre vermittelt, anstatt ein System aus den 1970er Jahren?

Ich mag bspw. #DCC und #Shadowdark sehr gerne, aber das ist eine der Fragen die ich mir durch meine Beschäftigung mit #ODnD aka #0e und #SwordsAndWizardry schon stelle.

#pnpde #ttrpg #osr
#dungeonsanddragons

deinol, 1 day ago to DnD

Not to start a war, but the Shadowdark Facebook group I saw a link to a YouTube claiming Shadowdark “won” the OGL war.

First, you can never “win” open gaming. You can temporarily become dominant. If anyone has, it’s Paizo who often gets as much or more shelf space as D&D.

Second, while Shadowdark uses the 5e CC-BY SRD, but it contributes nothing to open gaming itself. It’s got a 3rd party license, and it’s fine enough, but that isn’t open gaming.

#OGL #OpenGaming #Shadowdark #DnD #Pathfinder

zdl, 1 month ago to China

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/15/china/china-israel-iran-mediator-intl-hnk/index.html

Oh, this is a hilarious trap. "Can China play a role in avoiding an all-out war in the Middle-East?"

Possible outcomes:

1. The Chinese government manages to play that role. Now China is blamed for everything that happens. "Because we know they can do this!"

2. The Chinese government doesn't play that role. Now China is blamed for everything that happens. "Because we know they can do this … but chose not to!"

(1/2)

#China #Israel #Iran #USA #perfidy

zdl, 2 days ago to random

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I present to you American-style "Buddhism".

https://americanbuddhist.net/2024/05/16/the-jewish-plot-to-enslave-humanity/

For my friends who wonder why I'm instantly suspicious of any westerner I encounter who claims to be "Buddhist", here's why.

zdl, 15 days ago to random

Isn't it amazing that the ten greatest love stories of, and I quote, "all time", happened to all fall within about a 200 year span and in the circle of European culture?

https://www.yourtango.com/love/greatest-love-stories-of-all-time

The parochial nature of this list hurts SO BADLY!

zdl, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to generativeAI

The #Hotpot #GenerativeAI picture generator has an interesting feature: it seems to be flatly impossible to generate a picture with both #DonaldTrump and #VladimirPutin in which Trump is in any way subservient to or even equal to Putin.

This is the closest I've come, which is not very close at all. It still has Trump slightly more in the foreground than Putin, despite the prompt stating they should be side by side.

🧵 (1/n)

zdl, 21 days ago to ai

Encyclopaedia Metallum¹ just put out an interesting statement² on AI. Despite being in text, I have to make it an image because of character counts. One of the ironies of living in my SF future apparently.

#AI #GenerativeAI #SupportArt #Policy #Metal #MetalArchives #EncyclopaediaMetallum #MySFFutureIsBetrayed

---

¹ https://www.metal-archives.com/
² https://www.metal-archives.com/news/view/id/296

zdl, 18 days ago to random

Conspiracy theory time.

(This is mostly in jest. Mostly.)

Phones, even when "turned off" are still active and can still do things. The fact that modern phones don't have removable batteries is so that the surveillance state (whether formal or capitalists) will always have an in on you.

zdl, 20 days ago (edited 19 days ago) to random

This notice was at the bottom of a poster board for a musical theatre production.

Look at it. Read it. Try to guess which production is so disturbing it needs a trigger warning.

I'll put the answer in a (hidden) reply.

#MusicalTheatre #TriggerWarning #Guess

zdl, 6 months ago to lemmy

So I found a place called #Lemmy that's like a "Reddit" without the corporate espionage and other such shitfuckery. I've decided to open a community for fans of #FGU (Fantasy Games Unlimited) games to see if I can't find any more people whose gaming life was shaped by this wild, weird, wonderfully eclectic publisher.

zdl, 1 month ago to random

Could someone explain to me why I'm getting HUNDREDS of these popping up all the time today on Mastodon?

It does this non-stop while I'm just sitting here doing nothing, sometimes stacking six or seven high.

@Mastodon
#MastodonBug
#UncommunicativeMessages

zdl, 26 days ago to vegan

#Vegan #BlackMetal #Chef

"What are four words I never expected to see together, Alex?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoE8jLGE6R4

Handout, 1 day ago to random

Guardian interviewing Finkelstein - but no questions about Trans stuff.

zdl, 16 days ago (edited 16 days ago) to random

TALKING HEAD: In China today, the communist government demonstrated its evil again as it sent armed and armoured police and vehicles against peacefully protesting students nationwide.

frantic hissing from off-screen

TH: What's that?

frantic hissing continues

TH: Oh.

short pause

TH: In the USA today, student rioters have forced universities nationwide to bring in heavily armed police and even the National Guard to restore order in the face of illegal occupations of public spaces.

zdl, 1 month ago to random

http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-2023-hugo-awards-somehow-it-got.html

I seems if you say "Hugo Awards" three times into a mirror another scandal pops up.

"Appalling as it is, the choice to screen English-language nominees for ideological compatibility may, in fact, be a sideshow to the real scandal, which is that hundreds of Chinese voters have been disenfranchised. And—barring even more revelations—this disenfranchisement cannot be blamed on PRC sensibilities and censorship."

Fuck #Worldcon.
Fuck the #Hugoawards.

With a rusty chainsaw.