Geekery In Various Flavors

Longtime lover of many things, including RPGs, video games, and books. 30, he/him, aroace spectrum.

[doublestormryu]

What Is CrossRoad TTRPG?

Short answer: It's my big project I've poured my blood, sweat, and tears into.

Longer answer: It's a homebrew tabletop RPG that I began work on as a result of wanting to make a simple system that people could use to represent the various characters they've played in RP, both gaming and free-form, specifically in the context of old-school dungeon-crawling.

All of them.

Yeah, I know, that's ambitious. So this is where I talk about what the goals of the system are and what I want it to be.

Goal One: Easy basics, but complexity you can opt into.

I, personally, love me some crunchy combat. I love having lots of bits and pieces to fiddle with and tinkering with what a build says about the character. But I also know that not everyone does. So CrossRoad is intended to have a very basic set of core mechanics that will be easy to learn, and let players choose how mechanically complex they want their characters to be.

Goal Two: Make it feel like a classic JRPG.

I have a fondness for turn-based (or mostly turn-based) RPGs. Final Fantasy is probably my favorite series in gaming. I grew up with it, along with other classics like Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest, Legend of Dragoon... they've made a mark on me. Modern ones that hearken back to that era, like Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Etrian Odyssey, have a special place on my gaming shelf. I love the feeling of exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, and having climactic boss battles while screaming about what's important to you (usually friendship). The mechanics of CrossRoad are intended to make battles snappy and fun, just like sitting down to play those games.

Goal Three: Playable with only a little setup.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some elaborate maps, perfectly-curated mood music, and all-out nerd gatherings. They're just not always viable. CrossRoad is intended to be playable even in just text Discord chat - no need for a VTT.

Goal Four: Characters of all backgrounds.

When telling people about the project, I've used the phrase "Smash Bros but a JRPG" before. And that's not too far off from what I want. I want players to be able to bring in characters from any setting and have them all adhere to the same mechanical skeleton. Keep it balanced and let everyone have fun. In other words, if you can have a dungeon run where Twilight Sparkle, Garrus Vakarian, a Cleric of Bahamut, and Knight Solaire are all part of the same party, fighting Doctor Wily in his newest fortress, I'll have done CrossRoad right.

[liberalsarecool]

The cruelty of racist white men.

[wolf840]

Does anyone else remember when Elon was like "if anyone knows how to end world hunger for 6 billion USD, I'll fund it" and UNICEF was like "we're going to spend a month to make a plan to end world hunger for 6 billion USD and Elon is going to fund it" and Elon was like "actually, nah" and then bought Twitter instead?

I think that was one of the worst things I'll ever see in my life.

[tiredspacedragon]

I still think that should be the thing for which he's the most famous. It should be brought up every time he's mentioned. In any news article, any interview, any history book. "Elon Musk, who was offered a chance to end world hunger and turned it down." Put it on his fucking gravestone.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

i personally think that luigi mangione is innocent and so anyway i hope he becomes the first person to become a millionaire solely through legal payouts from all of this Actual Libel

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

[demilypyro]

>valve released the TF2 source code

Holy shit?

[lunachats]

Huh! This seems really huge.

[theinsanewombat]

[jaypgartifacts]

poster for your poster needs (grossly oversimplified but i'm going for broad strokes not intensive academic rigor)

free to use, repost & reproduce, no credit necessary

[sonyshock]

‘There’s some things a machine just can’t do’ Social media  + Commissions  + PAPERCUT

[maxmorkson]

If you've seen that one screencap, you know what it's about.

"The Sin of Empathy" Sticker for Sale by Sugar-Junkie

My eyes will be full of love and compassion. I will not be fooled into hating. • Millions of unique designs by independent artists. Find you

[cyberpriestess]

still mad about smart TVs. that shit should be in a separate box like you can literally buy one of them androidtv boxes for £30. it doesn't need its own ip address it doesn't need its own app store it doesn't need to replicate the functionality every device plugged into it already has

[opensuse-official]

Smart TVs are one of the great evils of the modern era tbh. If I wanted spyware on my TV I should have to download it myself

[cyberpriestess]

i keep promising myself i won't become another technophobe yelling about those "dang newfangled machines" or whatever. that i won't Get Worse until going back to punchcards unironically seems like a good idea. that i'll enjoy new things as they come out.

but so much is actively evil, hostile or otherwise enshittified. i don't want to track my greebles with splorp i don't want to pay a teehee subscription to get round cacophany's file limits i don't need 17 ways to skrimple my scronk 7 of which secretly activate scrungly plus ultimate i don't need to link it to my flowolf account i don't want to manage it with the flowby mowby i don't care if poob does or does not has it for me. i don['t care

i want a big screen whose ENTIRE job is to show me whatever device i plug into it. and also audio. i want to save my documents. on the computer. that i'm using. i want to own the media i buy. i want tech that is fat, properly cooled, simpler, serviceable by a normal person, and not forcing me to constantly select the "onlly spy on me a little bit" box every couple weeks.

[opensuse-official]

You are so incredibly right

[eraserheadbabycat]

Not to be dramatic but this is a massive fucking deal and I legitimately hope every single politician dies.

[capesandshapes]

As Elon Musk cements his place in history as a fascist tech overlord and the rest of the world looks at us in horror, I really do want to reiterate what I feel will be lost to the history books

Nearly everyone in america has thought and continues to think that Elon is very cringe.

[soloyoyquienmas]

Despite not being a USA citizen, everyon has... no, MUST remember that the billionare Elon Musk has such a tiny, pathetic and childish ego, that he had the need to lie about being a hardcore epic gamer in Path of Exile 2, only to be caught red-handed as the hilarious sham that he is, and ban everyone who exposed him.

[anarchopuppy]

the doge meme is from 2013. its easy for dates in history books to get kinda blurry and to just print something like "the department of government efficiency was named after a popular meme at the time", but i think its important to record that musk named the agency that is illegally seizing our government after a joke so outdated that the dog in the picture has since died of old age

[kermitlesbian]

*in a rap battle* i wonder who your mother could have been if she never had you

[kermitlesbian]

[naamahdarling]

I never thought I would live to see a "your mom" joke that doesn't degrade their mom.

[anotherpapercut]

I don't really think it's fair to dismiss the idea that that guy might have been framed for killing the CEO as like an unfounded conspiracy theory when NYPD has a proven history of planting/fabricating evidence on people. in 2011 there was a massive investigation of the NYPD and hundreds of cases against people were dismissed after a former police officer testified that they literally have a name for planting evidence on people: flaking. you cannot be out here acting like considering the possibility that cops who do this shit under normal circumstances might possibly also do it when they're under intense global pressure and scrutiny is the same as republicans thinking democrats run a secret pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza restaurant

[anotherpapercut]

also it's kinda weird that some of you are treating the concept of presumption of innocence like a crazy leftist conspiracy instead of like. a fundamental right of the accused

even if you think him being innocent is unlikely, you should at least be able to understand why automatically treating him as if he is guilty just because the cops say so is a bad thing

[pingintech]

i think theres reason to want to make sure people are wary of the TACTICS people are using in order to try and internet slueth this into a frame job because those tactics are very commonly used for other more dangerous false flag type conspiracy theories but the tactic people SHOULD be focusing on in regards to this is motive of the frame instead of looking at grainy pictures and working backwards towards a conclusion you should question a thing told to you by unreliable narrators like the NYPD because of the motives and consider the plausibility of a theory base on the number of people that would need to be involved in such a conspiracy i will say a key factor people ignore about this as a result of working backwards from grainy photos is that the FEDS found luigi not the NYPD the feds have a much better capacity for secrecy than common NYPD thugs and the fact that the anonymous snitch has never identified themselves and no one has come forward for the reward increases the odds of this being a plausible conspiracy if luigi was tracked down and arrested by NYPD and the coverup was done explicitly by the NYPD at the orders of the mayor and they had someone come out and say they were the one to call the NYPD on Luigi then its a conspiracy that would have to necessitate secrecy from the pigs the mayor anyone in the mayors party who mightve been privy to this cover up and a paid actor to call on luigi and come forward as the one to do so

this conspiracies plausibility goes up the more the number of people needed to be involved goes down

the fact that we know the feds are involved and feds long involvement in government coverups suggests it could potentially be possible luigi was framed and te act that the federal government might have incentive to do so is a much stronger argument for this conspirac theory than comparing pictures and arguing he has the wrong jacket or he doesnt have a unibrow etc.

all that said there is about as much evidence it could be a fram job as there is evidence luigi did it (which is to say very little) and even if there was ample evidence he is constitutionally entitled to a presumption of innocence which he has been routinely denied in press coverage

[liberalsarecool]

MAGA thinks Nazis are good people and want every Confederate image/statue restored.

You can't take anything they say seriously.

[theprofessional-amateur]

This is my favorite section of this baking book i recently bought

[porterdavis]

[thepoisonroom]

loudly going "YOU'RE GOOD YOU'RE GOOD" to myself to ward off the memory of every embarrassing thing i've ever done

[elmerseason-deactivated-deactiv]

[0gl1tch0]

I actually learned a fun therapy trick for this!

The statute of limitations on arson is 6 years.

So whenever I remember an embarrassing or shameful thing I’ve done, I ask myself if it was worse than arson. If it wasn’t, and it was 6 or more years ago, I forgive myself.

Also just the comedic shock of going “well, that was a stupid and mean thing I said, but 6 years is the statute of limitations on arson” helps.

[kylejsugarman]

what super expensive indulgence would u get for urself if u suddenly came into a bunch of money?? assume all bills/mortgages paid, all friends helped: what treat are u buying just for u?? for me it would be a quilted lambskin chanel bag in iridescent pink

[doublestormryu]

Big. Fancy. Gaming table.