#calvinball

[parawyrm]

More from that one post (and all the rest of these comics here)

[anim-ttrpgs]

I’m looking over some of your posts and is Homebrew actually horrible or?

I'm going to pretend that this is a good faith message for a minute. Any "homebrew" that doesn't come from an understanding of the underlying game design incentives and intentions which are being modified, something that is impossible to develop without thorough engagement with the rules-as-written, is going to probably be pretty bad and/or not much different from just playing calvinball instead of playing a real game. It's more work for less.

People are welcome to like playing calvinball, but a distinction needs to be made between playing calvinball and playing TTRPGs "proper" so that calvinball does not override the entire artform and make everybody inside and outside think that all TTRPGs are just calvinball - and you should try games rules-as-written, because it might turn out that you actually like them. If all TTRPGs are treated as calvinball, no informed decision can be made both in their play (something people who like TTRPGs for their rules like to do), nor can an informed decision be made by would-be fans of TTRPGs or calvinball "collaborative storytelling" as to which one they are going to play at any given time. You can enjoy both, but in order to enjoy both, you have to understand that they are two separate things.

The people who enjoy calvinball would, 90% of the time, be better off just admitting to liking calvinball and either playing with a very explicitly calvinball set of simple "rules," or just playing with no rules and doing freeform RP.

[voicelessalveolartrill]

At first I thought this episode was high-budget Curses board game, but my spouse rightfully pointed out it's Calvinball

[newsandstuffisee]

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Bill Watterson was watching me for a week while my parents went on vacation. We played Calvinball together.

[thehumanwiki]

what if the toymaker from doctor who was challenged to a game of calvinball

[musewrangler]

Calvinball payment (when hit with the ball, one must go write three sentences on a WIP)

I got hit twice with the Calvinball. Standing there, minding my own business and CERTAIN mutuals got feisty with the throws.

So—-two bits of WIP

From Men and Empires

“I said nothing, General,” Piett responded, careful to use his title out here on the deck.

“You didn’t need to,” Veers growled. “I can see…Firmus. I own that others would bear this status heavily. But you are mine. And have I not made clear that I do not define you by your position?”

Piett wanted to snarl back. He wanted to fight someone. Hells, he wanted to punch Veers in the face. His fury was hot. And how the Roman could not see why he would be so affected made him want to yell.

And from a whumptober WIP

“If they had asked…I would have…told them everything,” he said, shame burning him with the same intensity as the instruments of his torture.

“You don’t know that,” Lunders said immediately.

Chucking the ball around at @kraytwriter and @winterinhimring because they richly deserve it. @afaroffsong @brievel @chaosgoblinhours @fairytale-lights @kanerallels @klarionthewizard @banachtarskiparadox @tolkienreader1996 @mathmusicninja only if they would like to 😉

[eretzyisrael]

Why Israel’s Critics Keep Changing the Rules

In the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters create a game called Calvinball that has only one permanent rule: It ca

by Seth Mandel

Compared to Israel’s November operation at Shifa, this one has attracted far less press attention (aside from the usual perfunctory stenographic work mainstream newspapers in America do for Hamas). One reason for this is that in November, Israel had to spend time searching the hospital after securing it and committing to the slow process of finding and neutralizing the tunnels. This meant the world spent weeks criticizing Israel before informed criticism was even possible, and then moved the goalposts every time Israel revealed a Hamas war crime in the hospital complex. It was a round of Calvinball. By the time the scope of Hamas’s use of the complex was made clear, the press had moved on.

This time, the press had no excuses even before the operation. Everyone already knows how Hamas turned a large hospital into a war zone. As well, the presence of senior Hamas military commanders makes even the attempt to spin this is an Israeli overreaction look ridiculous. Hamas has been caught in the act, which should theoretically be a headline-dominating story for days. There should be a tidal wave of condemnations from foreign ministries around the world and apologies from medical NGOs and media organizations for having—wittingly or unwittingly—aided a terrorist army’s unprecedented assault on international law and coopting journalists and doctors into undermining the safety and credibility of their peers in other conflict zones.

Ah, but that wouldn’t be Calvinball. The rules adjust, and Israel must adjust with them—and as soon as it does, the rules will change again.