If you have a machine that runs Windows and the hardware is still good,

Linux is often more forgiving on hardware requirements. I recently put Mint (with xfce) on a like 2013 laptop and it’s fine. That’s not even an especially lightweight distribution.

Never thought about it before, but the two systems I like most don’t do that.

In chronicles of darkness, you get penalties when any of your last 3 health boxes (out of 6-10) are marked. In fate, you start getting Consequences, and those both adversely affect you and provide bonuses for your opponents.

I think some people don’t like this because it can cause a death spiral, where whoever gets injured first is likely to get more injured from the penalties. But, that makes sense for a lot of genres.

I routinely found it extremely irritating in BG3 when I’d do a sneak attack critical, and then the enemy would have like 3 HP left, and then they’d turn around and attack just as hard as if i’d done nothing. Unsatisfying.

I don’t need to know their exact stats, but I like (for example) having a system where you know a human’s health ranges from 6 to 10, and a gun does at least 3 damage, so you can be pretty sure if you shoot him four times he’s down. None of this, “Well, he’s a 12th level accountant so he has 78 hp”.

Maybe I mostly just dislike how vague HP is in D&D.

But it was probably mostly a GM issue.

I’m here to roleplay, not be told immediately whether or not I can take the dude.

I find it hard to roleplay when I don’t know what is in the world. Things that are very different (high level stuff, low level stuff) getting basically the same description is distracting. In real life, you get a lot of information looking at someone.

Maybe I’m still just annoyed at that game where we were all 10th level and so were the basic ass soldiers.

One of the things I realized I don’t like about DND (and close relatives) is it’s kind of hard to reason about the rules and risks. The narrative and numbers are too disjointed.

You might say the knight is hulking and looming ominously, but does that mean 20 AC, 50 HP, one attack at +6 for 1d8+4… Or does that mean 24 AC, 500 HP, three attacks at 1d8+8 (slashing) +1d4 (negative energy)? Could be either! The range of possibilities is largely unbound and arbitrary.

Compare with another system that like, constrains the numbers. Strength is rated 1-5. Melee is rated 1-5. This guy is pretty buff looking so he’s probably got a total of six. That guy’s a demigod and probably throws ten. Cool I can reason from that who I can take in a fight.

This whole problem is such an archaic D&D-ism. Most other games provide strong guidance or even explicit rules about how to make a party that works.

Fate has the “phase trio” where you go around and make up as a group how your characters have a past together. None of this “everyone makes their dude in isolation” nonsense.

How is Ted Cruz still alive? Can I file a bug report somewhere?

Ring of protection. Grants everyone around you protection in a fairly large radius. Might be useful for long range combat, maybe. Might also be useful to navigating certain environmental hazards.

Boots of Flying. They can fly, but only have a carry weight of a few pounds. If you’re more than say ten pounds, the little wings flap but gain no altitude. They are not autonomous. Might be useful in condunction with other magics to reduce weight.

Gauntlets of Ogre Might. Do not affect strength. They do tell you the odds of nearby ogres taking particular actions. They might do this, they might do that, and so on.

Hammer of Striking. Social bonuses when organizing labor. Combat bonuses only when near many allies.

Boots of Haste. Gain extra actions but large penalties to all checks. Haste makes waste. May be useful if combined with large bonuses or fixed outcomes (eg: DND diviner wizard).

Classic RPG strategy of “just basic attack and heal afterwards” works too often, even when playing the game in fast forward

Whenever I meet someone and mention I like video games, and they go “…like call of duty?” I have to respond “nooo no no, not that slop”

I mean, I play a lot of mainstream stuff too (eg: fromsoft, larian) but this kind of shooter just rubs me the wrong way, and makes me kind of sad that’s the placeholder people have for games in general.

Is the thing in the original post here real? Or is that a joke at the expense of Internet duds? Poe’s law is too intense. No one can really believe that sincerely right?

I decided I was done with reddit. I never used apps so I just signed out of my account and never went back.

I’m still kind of disappointed and irritated about an old D&D group. The guy ran a game that was literally patriarchy.

There was a king who died. He had a daughter, who was ruling competently presently. But he also had an infant son. Now a civil war is brewing because some people want the son on the throne, because that’s the male heir.

And he just played it straight and seemed to expect us to be like “Oh, obviously the son has a legitimate claim to the throne. and also absolute monarchy is unremarkable”. To his credit he did let us decide which faction to support, but it was kind of exhausting getting a constant stream of “no, absolute male hereditary rule is good and normal”.

It was a pretty fleshed out setting in terms of details and subfactions, but the core of it was just so very basic and unexamined. No one else seemed to give a shit, though. I did not gel with that group.

Meanwhile, some time before that I’d had a blast running a game. The players came upon an anarchist collective that had overthrown the old despot, but now there are counter-revolutionaries lurking that want to return the now undead tyrant to the throne. Also the neighboring state is rattling their sabers because they ideologically do not approve of a state without a king.

So I guess the lesson is games are better when you vibe with the group?

I’ve had players do that kind of counter-productive behavior. I usually tell them that we’re here to engage with the game’s premise. If the game’s premise was “we’re going to rob a bank”, your character needs to have reasons to engage with that. You can write a book about Jimmy the Marketer that works a 9 to 5 and has a rich social life, but that’s not what we’re here to explore.

If i’m running the game, I really make sure to hammer on this stuff during session 0. I also don’t typically approve “you all met in a tavern” setups. Your characters should have history together when we start. I don’t want to have to handwave “wait, why would i trust this guy I just met to take first watch?” again

I feel like sometimes people refuse to “meta game” in a way that is also metagaming, except targeting bad outcomes instead of good.

Like your characters live in a world with trolls. They’re not a secret. Choosing to intentionally avoid fire because “that’s metagaming” is also metagaming. You’re using your out of character knowledge (fire is effective) and then avoiding it.

Usually cleared up with a "hey dm, what are common knowledge and myths about this stuff? or whatever.

I assume it’s the usual stupid “they’re talking about other people who happen to sound a lot like me”.

That or they exist solely in the emotional realm, and the words don’t really matter.

Good. Fuck Google and fuck the ai slop

32k/year seems hard unless you’re really pooling expenses or live in a cheap metro area

Napkin math, I guess it checks out if you can get rent for < ~$1000, have no debt, and no car

I decided to do another go of Path of Exile 2. Went with the warrior, focused on armor and shield block. Surprisingly, it works pretty well. Usually I play a glass cannon and die a lot, but I got all the way to tier15 maps and Pinnacle bosses.

I don’t think there’s much more to do, though. The sounds of “boom boom BOOM CLSH” from my attacking skills may haunt my dreams though.

Years ago I kept having this argument with the party fighter. I was playing a rogue. He had some sort of magical lens with a bonus to find traps. I was like, “let me use that so I can find traps better. You can’t even find traps with a DC above 20, rules as written. That’s a rogue class feature. With the lens I’d be getting like 27 if I take 10.”

He was like “no. It’s mine. I found it.”

Like, my guy. We’re all in danger if we don’t find the traps. You don’t see me holding onto armor I can’t use.

I feel like a common problem is people say they want to play D&D, but in the same way that people say they want to go to the gym, or take up weaving, or whatever. A lot of people are really bad at honestly, accurately, evaluating their future self’s energy level and interest.

There’s also people who say they’d totally like to join their D&D game, but they don’t really. They’re just afraid of conflict or hurting your feelings. There’s this thing some people do where they try to spare someone’s feelings by being a little dishonest, and end up causing a lot more problems. I would so much rather someone just say to my face “I don’t want to play D&D” than “oh yeah that sounds fun” and then they keep having scheduling conflicts or flake or ghost.

So yeah, I don’t know. Some people are just a mess.