Best posts made by lordbelh

@Jaded I've only ever heard good things about Anya Charlotra's portrayal of Yennefer. Personally I think she's the best part of the whole show.

@bored said in Good TV:

there's also the Polish fandom, which in general wasn't positive toward any race bending

This I've caught. While part of that is surely a touch of old fashioned racism; the Eastern Block isn't exactly short on it, it also seems a bit more complex. Something along the lines of not wanting to get caught up in the American race and diversity politics, when in Europe its Poles who have gotten shit on for centuries, and this being their time to shine and be seen. As opposed to being portrayed in ways to suit American sensibilities. Anyone following Brexit'll have caught on the general 'shitty polaks coming to steal our jobs' sentiment simmering, and that's common enough across the board. From the Polish perspective, there's little conception of white privilege, or guilt, having had no slaves, no colonies, no empire, mostly just being victim to them. The places they're likely to go, they're the second class citizens from the second class culture (though its changing, at least where I live - white Slavs doesn't quite get the usual suspects' blood boiling like it use to, not when there's Syrians and Afghans - anything muslim really - and Africans to panic about). Its one of the most homogeneous countries in Europe, too, with the vast majority of migrants being from Ukraine (especially the Ukraine that used to be Poland) or other Slavic countries. So when its their fantasy culture on display, they're like to expect it to be pretty darn white.

Is that naive? Sure. Is there a bit of racism there? Yeah. Is adding a bit of diversity a sign of American Cultural Imperialism, or Cultural Appropriation? Heh. Though reading this one guy going on a bout it made me chuckle, and I've been searching for that article (or blog post, or whatever), to link, but to no avail. But there are some complex currents working through the responses that I've found interesting to read and ponder a bit on.

@Alzie said:

@Ganymede Social combat is just as valid as physical combat.

I'd say social dice is as valid as physical dice. But there's no good social combat system. Actual combat is fairly straight forward, but social combat never will be, because it actually requires you to take into account motives, personalities, histories, etc for it to work on anything but the most superficial levels.

@Lithium said in The 100: The Mush:

Even Bellamy wasn't a dick 100% of the time.

I doubt there's a single character on the game who is a dick 100 % of the time to 100% of the people. That's not how these things go.

@Ganymede said in Separating Art From Artist:

power of internet hatred, which is often fueled by ignorance

That tends to be the way of mobs, on the internet or not. The underlying reason for the passion might be justified, or it might not be, but by the time the frenzy gets going, facts and reason go out of the way and there's just passion left and the damage gets done regardless.

@Derp said:

I'm not dismissing relevant points. I'm stating that the OP asked for a system they could use in-game to help resolve these things, and you saying 'no I don't like systems' isn't conducive to the conversation.

When you offer up a bad solution, it is constructive to the greater conversation to point out that it is, in fact, a bad solution. Contrary to some people's beliefs, any solution is not always better than no solution.

I'm liking the writeup so far.

I still just do the same exercises I learned in highschool and the army after. Pull ups, push ups, sits up, high jumps, the plank, etc. 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there. It keeps me healthy and in shape, if not aboslutely ripped. I'll run half the year when doing so doesn't burn my face and lungs due to the friggin nordic cold. In the winter I'll just walk the mountains instead. Cross country skiing is awesome, but sadly the snow doesn't stay where I live right now. I miss being able to just step outside the door and skii.

A pull up bar somewhere in your home, preferably not in your cold dank basement, is awesome. It lowers the treshold to just grab it at random and do a couple, or swich around and hook your legs into it, or just do som static balance exercises. Owning some free weights is fantastic, too.

Make the treshold low. Minimize the effort required to just do a little light exercise, and you'll go a long way. That and eating healthy so you don't have to burn a million calories. (Read: I don't follow any diets, I just don't buy chips/sweets, I don't drink 5 cups of coffee with tons of sugar and cream, and I don't fry my food every day.)

@Arkandel At Christmas I gorge myself. Screw it all, it's Christmas.

@Derp said:

They don't actually say that they aren't good for PvP. They say that they recommend things be worked out in RP, and then go on to provide a system for how to use them in PvP.

As always you seem to have some real trouble with reading only what you want to read. The developers very much states that it isn't useful for PvP because only one side is active.. Basically its like physical combat only just the aggressor is allowed to roll. Which would be bad enough if social interactions aren't also a million times more complicated than physical ones.

@tragedyjones I liked the premise of BITN, and I don't think it was BITNs fault that I lost interest (it was work related, coupled with finding a game I found more fun once I started getting spare time again).

That said, it definitively felt like a sandbox game.

My little cousin told me I was old, so I guess I am. It was the grey hairs, you see. If you have grey hairs then your're old, even if you're sitting there playing ps4 with him. 12 year olds. So fucking judgemental.

@Derp Even when individual rolls may be contested, there's no parity in the Doors system. There's one active participant, and one passive participant. For what it's there to do, its a good system. But not for PvP.

@Lotherio Seems like an interesting premise to me. I wouldn't mind trying it out, but I'm a bit too time shy these days to offer up any staffing services.

@Coin and @Three-Eyed-Crow, that is one of my favorite shows ever. I was so bummed that it only lasted a single season. It was absolutely fantastic.

I also liked Veronica Mars, teenager investigator trope though it might be.

@mietze said:

I guess, after so many years staffing and playing, my point is that I'm so tired of legislating to the lowest common denominator.

So much this.

@bored I don't think people 'possibly being discomforted' is a great reason to avoid a subject.

Of course, as @Lotherio said, what the Muslims did in their conquests across the remains of the former Roman Empire wasn't pretty. But it wasn't any worse than what the Romans themselves did, or the Visigoths did when they rampaged their way down across the provinces of Hispania. The only real difference is that they brought a new religion along with their rape, plunder, murder and enslavement.

Or what the Christians did during and after the Reconquista.

As long as the Muslims aren't portrayed as any more or less inherently evil, well, I still find it an incredibly interesting piece of history I'd still love to dip my toes into.

@Cobaltasaurus It was a ham and cheese piece. So not the dessert kind!

@mietze I think you're right. There are a lot of people out there who will try to attach a stigma of being Bad People, just because what's happening IC is bad. Rather than attract that sort noise, they'll just not be too obvious about it. I'll do the same thing if I'm honest. Also cuts down on having to deal with Saviors. Which is also kind of a pity, because those can be cool storylines. Just not when random bumfuck SUPPOSEDLY evil vampire is the one trying to come to the rescue.

@Lotherio If you want everybody to be tolerant, why the hell have two separate religions in the first place? Part of the tension of that period of time, in that place, was the fear that one side was on the brink of being utterly wiped out, that god was forsaking them, etc, etc. If you take the religion out of the equation, there's actually nothing particularly special about your setting.

@Gingerlily said:

It's just me isn't it

Kinda sorta. I don't know, it just hasn't stood out as something I absolutely need to watch. If it comes out and gets great reviews, I might dip my toes into it, though.

Also, The Wire was the best. And yes, the last season was the worst.

Speaking of The Wire makers, I always felt I was the only person in the world who watched Treme.

I think there are some valid arguments made in the video. There is a point where being sensitive tips over into the death of creativity, and the end result is that the only thing you're either allowed to or feel comfortable writing about is your own little bubble. I think that would be unfortunate. You can't please everybody, nor can you avoid offending somebody.

People from the same background can have vastly different trigger points. Minority populations can have different views than their ethnic majority cousins, for example re: appropriation, where a minority population might be possessive about their identifiers, while the same ethnicity while having the majority viewpoint are proud to see their cultural identifiers adopted by others. The Chinese Cheongsam dress is an example of this. I remember reading a while back @Ganymede giving a great dissection of its history and how its use comes off to them.

Where is the line? I don't know. Its probably quite fluid. Trying to be respectful is always good, but I do think there's only so much you can reasonably expect others to research and consider, unless you prefer that the only settings and characters we see are exactly who we are in real life.

Anyhow, I hope watching this video isn't going to get me more ben shapiro videos in my youtube stream. Because they're the worst. All I wanted was to listen to Joe Rogan talk about some MMA stuff, not go down the rabbit hole of idiocy.