Someone to keep in prayers/thoughts.
A co-worker of mine is an immigrant worker from India here in the US. He's a contractor and has only a small window of time once going to a new job to get his work approval through immigration so that he can stay. He's been in the US for years without issue, he follows the rules, he's a good person.
Turns out that due to some work visa unethical behavior/loophole exploitation related to people in India being dishonest about their qualifications and applying to jobs in the US, the process for getting clearance has slowed down considerably. To make matters worse, the new presidential administration and their constant changes to immigration policy have left him trying (and getting little response) to get reapproved to remain in the states.
LSS: His deadline is coming up due to no fault of his own and he's afraid of being forced to go home. I feel really bad for the guy. This sucks.
Arminas pileckas
Just everything about arminas pileckas
So about three weeks ago an introverted work friend of mine declared on his FB that he wanted to run a D&D campaign for folks who haven't played before and indicated they might want to. But he wanted at least one player to be experienced, a ringer, and surprisingly the person he asked was me. He got a lot of noise from people who were interested, so he proceeded apace.
I came up with what I thought was a fun concept (A half-orc monk who is all about effectively controlling and directing her rage) and had my sheet halfway finished.
He requests a final roll call of those who planned to attend, and when it wasn't radio silence, it was cancellations. I felt so bad for him. He was really excited, he doesn't put himself out there like that very often, and I could see how deflated he was.
"If you stand for nothing Burr, what will you fall for?"
-- Hamilton: An American Musical
@Cupcake Damn, that sucks. What's worst about that is that the GM was secured. All people had to do was show up. Myself being a regular TT GM RL (because acronyms, motherfucker), I find it can be hard as fuck to find a willing GM so that I get a chance to play.
Not all GMs are created equal, but someone looking to run a TT game is a finite resource.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
I haven't GMed iRL for some time but when I did my problem wasn't cancellations, it was either enough people just not showing up without saying anything, or coming an hour late.
Maybe he could try a game store? I know a few local places here that have people that meet and TT. They just have pre-generated chars for people who want to 'try it out'. Although, I find that D&D is the gateway drug and people get hooked.
My local game store has a corkboard with those horrible tearable "SEEKING SERIOUS BASS PLAYER" tabs. If you're in a big enough city, I'm sure there's some kind of online meetup presence too.
God, but strangers are a gamble. People you know are highly preferred, especially if you intend to RP at a house/apartment.
In my TT days, it was always the ST who bailed. Without warning.
One week, we all gathered, spent over an hour trying to get in touch, only for him to finally call one of us back and go 'Oh, yeah, I'm out of town. I knew I was forgetting something...'
So it's sad that the players did in this case. ![😕](http://musoapbox.net/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f615.png?v=4vfms5ns7sl ":\")
I highly recommend meeting with a new person before a game. Gathering all your group is difficult, but getting together with one person to start is fairly easy.
The last TT I was in I found on.... wait for it... Craigslist! Yes, I know but I was young and naive. The group was actually pretty cool, but I was the only girl playing. The first few sessions the girlfriends of the guys stayed around.
Then the DM decided we should do side quests. Then he decided I should do a side quest. Then he decided he should hit on me and see if I was DTF. -- Let's mention his pregnant fiancee.
I quit going.
Once, my SO and I found out, due to a failed stamina roll at an IC house party scene, that the guy running the game was really into date rape roleplay.
Or should I say my SO found this out because it was her character.
He was booted out of our apartment after he told her to stop being so sensitive about it.
Delete the Hog Pit. It'll be fun.
I really don't understand He-Man
@Ghost Please tell me this actually involved an actual boot. Preferably one with the poison knife in the toe, like the shoes from Kingsman. 
Fucking Facebook.
They changed something AGAIN and now shit is missing. Again. Events I'm RSVPed to are gone, and the ability to 'invite all' to an event in a private group is gone.
YAY FACEBOOK.
You don't need to go to events or invite your friends over.
Stay home.
Drift from your friends.
Facebook will be here to love you
Only Facebook understands.
But I need the event thing. It's how we organize the insanity that is the LARP I run and make sure that they know game is ON. AUGH FACEBOOK.
@Bobotron Meetup might be a good alternative?
About some of the criticisms I've been reading online regarding Iron Fist...
Look, if it's a bad show then it's a bad show. Not the first one, won't be the last. It happens.
What I really dislike so far is that so much of the criticism is about a white guy playing the role... of a white guy in comics. Yes, I get the idea of a mystic martial arts warrior trained in the Far East might have fallen on the wrong side of the politically correct wall but the original work was first published in the early seventies, and this TV series is loyal to that.
It's utter idiocy. If these critics want the same concept but using an asian leading character because it's better then make that one. Or judge this one on its own merits, or lack thereof.
Eh. Everyone and their dog saw that one of the easiest ways to deal with the blatantly appropriative nature of Danny Rand's story was to make him Asian American. Complaining that Marvel didn't get with the times and do that is valid, regardless of the sadly appropriative state of the source material.
A lot of the Iron Fist reviews I've read have talked about how derivative the source material is in any number of ways (power set, origin story, plots, etc.). Maybe there was no way to port it well if they were being faithful. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage seemed really refreshing to me but, as I understand it, those stories were strongly based on revivals of the characters that took place in the comics themselves. The white boy ninja thing is grating to me not just because it's more off now than it was when the character was written but because, as @saosmash said, it's one more way Marvel could've made the character updated and just chose not to.
I also have to wonder if a better actor than Finn Jones would take the edge off some of this criticism, but who knows.
I'll still watch. Hoping for some Misty Knight, but the early reviews make me unsure I'll get her. Even if this is mediocre, it won't dim my interest in Marvel's Netflix brand as a whole, and I remain very pumped for The Defenders.
@Three-Eyed-Crow said in RL Anger:
Maybe there was no way to port it well if they were being faithful.
This is my take on it.
I mean, when you start to poke at canon material too much, you get The Man of Steel.
Eh. Everyone and their dog saw that one of the easiest ways to deal with the blatantly appropriative nature of Danny Rand's story was to make him Asian American. Complaining that Marvel didn't get with the times and do that is valid, regardless of the sadly appropriative state of the source material.
