Well, hello there. Good to have you here.

Male, 21. Interests: video games, reading, metal music.

[grimmscythe]

Reblog to cast heal on prev

[prokopetz]

The irony of positioning system-obsessed gearheads as the ideological opposite of Collaborative Storytelling wonks who think all tabletop RPGs ultimately have identical creative goals from which the actual text is a mere distraction is that if you actually talk to both, the second guy is considerably more likely to be the one who's never heard of any tabletop RPGs other than Dungeons & Dragons.

[prokopetz]

Like, you can totally see how one would get there. If you start with the false assumption that collaborative storytelling is the central creative goal of all tabletop RPGs, and compound it with the false assumption that all tabletop RPGs are essentially similar to D&D, "the text of tabletop RPGs is unrelated to their goals" is the inevitable conclusion – but you'd have to be tremendously incurious to just let that conclusion stand rather than thinking "hey, wait a fucking minute".

[rasamune]

[miss-rum-hee]

[ignimortis]

You can have a little contempt. But your love for the source material should always be much bigger than said contempt. Otherwise it's no longer a fan project, it's a tear-down of the original.

[evilbuildingsblog]

Bethlehem PA during an evening snow storm

[posthumanwanderings]

[targetedknowledge]

[elodieunderglass]

It’s too much for coffee early on, but perfect for a proper knight out

[cipheramnesia]

get back here

[redarmyscreaming]

There is no ambiguity with toggle switches

[ignimortis]

Spoken like someone who's never lived in a flat with some switches being "down" for "on" and the rest the other way around!

[mooserattler]

Reblog this picture of me holding a Family Size box of Honey Nut Cheerios? I’d really appreciate it.

[moonblossom]

How can I say no to such a great photo and such a polite request?

[ignimortis]

Item: The Wishlist Rarity: ⏶ Common

How many video games are in your backlog right now?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

Bigods, there's a lot. Like maybe a couple dozen at the least. I haven't even played most of the stuff I bought in the last 12 months, because my free time has been devoured by the monster known as World of Warcraft.

[warmfigure]

i am massively overdue for a very very good week where not a single bad thing happens and everything is easy

[unlettered-heathen]

reblog to give prev a very good week where not a single bad thing happens and everything is easy

[prokopetz]

The whole "this isn't a real problem because ultimately the GM decides" thing annoys me not only because it's a cop-out, but also because it's vacuously true of any game which adheres to the trad many-players-one-GM model. I could shit on a page and say what it means is up to the GM's interpretation, and that would technically be a true statement, but unless your group are a very particular kind of freaks, the circumstances in which it's a useful statement are very limited!

[ignimortis]

Trad games' biggest advantage is having rules to shape the game without requiring nearly as much buy-in or GM interference. If the argument goes "the GM can fix it", it's not an argument, it's an admission of defeat.

[alxnxllix]

Reblog if you're grateful for your internet friends

[pearlescentiris]

How the naysayers think Squinoa goes:

Squall: I am darkness and coldness and hate and indifference and I despise everyone, my wings are broken and they cannot be repaired, life is cruelty and why should I be any different? Save yourself and leave me be. Rinoa: UwU Do not worry, I will save you with my light and my love my dear sweet misunderstood sweetheart.~

How Squinoa actually goes:

Squall: *to himself, not realizing he said it out loud because he's only gotten four hours of sleep all week long* You ever think it's so weird how YooHoo explicitly states it's not chocolate milk on the label but refuses to elaborate? Rinoa: RIGHT??? Like if it's not milk then what else could it be??? Water? Corn juice? An unstable radioactive isotope? Do I REALLY want to drink this? Am I going to spontaneously grow a face on my back? Both of them internally: (You're asking the real questions. Where have you been all my life?)

[pragnificent]

This is Money Snake. She only appears every 312 years. 

If you reblog her picture within the next twenty-five seconds you will have good luck and fortune for the rest of your life. 

[thingsamylikes]

I reblogged her late last year and my 2024 has been very satisfying work-wise and (secure enough to not stress out) money-wise so far. Money Snake is wise and good.

[sleepy-bebby]

80s Aerobics video to the tune of Rob Zombie's Dragula.

🔊 < sound on >

[oshea52]

Now this is funny

[instructor144]

Epic.

[p1ss]

[ejacutastic]

I DIDN’T LEARN ABOUT THIS IN DRIVING SCHOOL

[biszumletzten]

Stop says the red light, go says the green

Wait says the yellow light, twinkling in between. 

KNEEL, SAYS THE DEMON LIGHT WITH ITS EYE OF COAL  SAURON KNOWS YOUR LICENSE PLATE  AND STARES INTO YOUR SOUL

[demonsnakes-deactivated20160829]

THIS IS ALWAYS FUNNY

[brightlotusmoon]

@irritatedlifeguard I agree with your tags.

[anonymous-lightbulb]

@hellsite-hall-of-fame

[cavegirlpoems]

Not only do I think the game existing in the rules text of the various editions of d&d is not a 'collaborative storytelling game', I actually think the opposite is true.

D&D is, as written, an adversarial storytelling game. The players and DM do not pool their creative ideas together to craft a narrative through collaboration.

Instead, the DM puts an obstacle in front of the players - "can you get the treasure from this dungeon" or "can you defeat this dragon" or "can you save this village" - that is intended to challenge them. The players then try to overcome that challenge through a mixture of luck, cleverness in the fiction, and mechanical mastery. This activity is adversarial; the players are trying to overcome adversity deliberately placed in their path. Perhaps they succeed, or perhaps they fail. Or perhaps the outcome is a complex combination of failure and success and other unexpected consequences.

And that is where the narrative comes from. From the play-conflict between players and DM pitted against each other, and the resolution of those conflicts.

This is, incidentally, a good thing in my view. The adversarial storytelling model produces investment and stakes very readily, and is quite easy to grasp.

[ignimortis]

The way I commonly see it is that it's not adversarial per se, but rather non-collaborative or non-cooperative.

The GM isn't exactly invested into making players lose (and it's too easy to make it so anyway), but they are not really an ally to the players. Instead, they play the world, which is separate from the players and is not inclined to cooperate by default. Just like in real life. Its inaction or persistence in its goals is often obstacle enough.

And this, just by itself, tends to produce amazing stories, because they're easy to understand and believe, because the experience of overcoming an uncaring world (not actively malevolent, even) is a universal human experience.

[meckamecha]

I got a laptop with Windows 11 for an IT course so I can get certified, and doing the first time device set-up for it made me want to commit unspeakable violence

Windows 11 should not exist, no one should use it for any reason, it puts ads in the file explorer and has made it so file searches are also web searches and this cannot be turned off except through registry editing. Whoever is responsible for those decisions should be killed, full stop.

Switch to linux, it's free and it's good.

[kuromi-hoemie]

u r absolutely right I have SO many complaints about Windows omg.

For anyone who'd like to follow along, I'm gonna share how to get around those things with group policies bc they're more user friendly and descriptive than registry editor imo :3 I'll also show how to get around needing a Microsoft account to get setup.

For the Device Setup

"OOBE" stands for Out Of Box Experience which is what that setup workflow is. But it also happens to be a folder with a little program in it that'll let you skip connecting to the internet; this makes it so you don't have to sign up with a Microsoft account and can just use a normal local one instead. And it already comes preinstalled! Here's how you get to it:

Hold Shift + F10, or Shift + Fn + F10 depending on your keyboard.

Click inside the window that pops up, type the following and press enter afterwards to run it: OOBE\BypassNRO

I believe it should restart your computer automatically, but if not then restart your computer or type: shutdown /r /t 0 /f

Now when you're brought back to the setup workflow, the page where you connect to the internet will have a new button on it that lets you say you don't have internet. Clicking that and proceeding through the rest of the setup lets you get around the Microsoft account thing.

Group Policies

You don't have to know much about them, these are just a bunch of specific settings for what your computer can or can't do that lets you decide how it works in different ways.

I'm gonna show you how to turn off the recommendations and internet stuff basically. For now bring up search and type gpedit, pick this

It'll open up to Local Group Policy Editor and we can get started :3c

Start Recommendations

In the side menu, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar. Click on Settings to sort them with all the "Turn off" ones bumped to the top.

Here's what you should set:

Turn off user tracking: enabled

Turn off feature advertisement balloon notifications: enabled

Remove Recommended section from Start Menu: enabled

Remove Personalized Website Recommendations from the Recommended section in the Start Menu: enabled

Do not search Internet: enabled

Windows Spotlight

Back in the side menu, go down to Windows Components > Cloud Content

Turn off all Windows spotlight features: enabled

Do not use diagnostic data for tailored experiences: enabled

Cortana

In the side menu, this one's back at the top under Computer Configuration. You're gonna want to go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search

Allow Cortana: disabled

Don't search the web or display web results in Search: enabled

News and Interests

In the side menu go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests.

Enable news and interests on the taskbar: disabled

Microsoft Account Login Nudges

When you don't use a Microsoft account they'll nudge you repeatedly to sign in so you can "get the most out of your experience" *gag*. The group policy for turning that off has a note that suggests it might not work with Windows 11 though (implicitly), so you can close the group policy editor window now and for this last one let's just open up the regular settings.

Go to System > Notifications > Additional settings, then uncheck all the boxes. And there ya go! (✿◠‿◠)ﾉ u are done.

Group policies are kind of a rabbit hole so while there is a lot more you could change or read into, for your own sanity's sake I would advise against it and say call it a day lol

[meckamecha]

This is all extremely good information, thank you very much for the addition!

[shrimpblaster]

I endorse this as an IT technician. I do this to every new Win11 device I set up.

As a bonus, run Chris Titus Tech's debloat tool on it.

Having Fun with Technology

It allows you to add tools, remove/disable shitty parts of windows, and easily change some settings. My default is running the preset for a desktop/laptop and applying security update settings, but there are so many options to customize. I used it on my personal laptop.

[ignimortis]

I am honestly going to just give Linux a go on my next PC, but having this handy is good, too. Thanks.