onsomekindofstartrek

[onsomekindofstartrek]

I saw people doing age gap discourse about Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance and that’s frankly passé at this point. But my question is… is there even a romantic subtext with them? Like, I don’t feel like there is.

#I’d be in love if my boss’s daughter brought me a crowbar and told me to kill cops with it #Gordon’s loss

[onsomekindofstartrek]

Actually I take that back, it’s evident that Samuel Dalton Reich was born to be a game show host.

I think it’s his entire personality at this point.

I’m sure Ify Nwadiwe is getting some racist shit for being black and replacing Mike Trapp, and honestly the show has sucked all season, but earnestly I think he sucks just as bad as Trapp did when he first hosted the show. Nobody is born a game show host.

When he hits his mark he’s gonna be fucking awesome.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

My generation (gen X) really produced some of the weirdest versions of cryptofascism. We had to be different, i guess.

Like, if I had a nickel for every "hippy" gen Xer I ever met who was actually a member of a weird evangelical sect that borders on Nazism, I'd have a quarter at least. At least three of them drove VW Kombis.

#i knew a lady who acted all quirky and cute #she kept her adult children at home #didn't let them drive #and then married the daughters off to preachers from other countries when they were in their mid-20's #the son became a firefighter #saw porn at the firehouse #had a mental breakdown because he thought he was going to hell and started binge eating and gained 200lb #another one owns a non-profit where they make autistic children ride horses against their will as like an ABA thing

[onsomekindofstartrek]

Without context, probably yes

Does it count as misgendering if someone uses pronouns for you that you do use, but aren't the ones you asked them to use?

[onsomekindofstartrek]

I’m sure Ify Nwadiwe is getting some racist shit for being black and replacing Mike Trapp, and honestly the show has sucked all season, but earnestly I think he sucks just as bad as Trapp did when he first hosted the show. Nobody is born a game show host.

When he hits his mark he’s gonna be fucking awesome.

#he’s also clearly been sick for every episode. you can’t hold that against him #dropout

[onsomekindofstartrek]

The first half is one of the greatest art rock albums of the late 80’s. The second half kinda fails to stick the landing idk. It’s a shame because he made four albums before this that were good all the way through. (Peter Gabriel untitled 1980 aka III aka “Melt” is one of the best albums ever.)

That being said, as much as I liked Sledgehammer when it came out, I’m tired of hearing it on the radio.

Peter Gabriel, So, 1986

#Peter Gabriel

[onsomekindofstartrek]

It’s funny, I’ve had a player storm out before but never because of expecting me to play the game for them.

She was young, maybe 25, way too emotionally invested in her character, did not RP with the other players, and had a wizard with terrible stats and no offensive spells, but blamed me for combat being to hard. She was a wizard with a +1 in INT, and had deliberately given herself a negative DEX modifier for some reason that didn’t make logical sense to me, but I left well enough alone.

If her complaining and refusal to engage with the others had gone on, I would have had a different version of that same conversation and probably at the end of it, nicely asked her if she thought the group was still a good fit.

Instead she had a screaming fit at me and said I was a bad person because she was convinced a certain encounter builder was the only thing that would make my encounters “fair” and I didn’t immediately promise I would use it. In point of fact I was using something nearly identical at that time and I actually do the math by hand now because the tool I liked went away.

And that gets me to my larger point. It’s a fucking game. D&D has been called a form of collaborative storytelling or improv theater, and some, like that lady, think it’s a form of therapy, but while it has traits of improv and group storytelling, it’s all a game at the end of the day. And games should be fun. If a game is not fun, ask yourself whether you’re playing it wrong, and if not, whether you’re playing it with the wrong people. Hopefully no one is making you play D&D at gunpoint.

God, I’m seeing a post about D&D players who expect their DM’s to do all the work of managing their character sheets and gameplay and I’m like… what DM’s put up with that? I’m not blaming the DM’s but I feel like expectations have been mismanaged to get to that point.

I do think Dimension 20 is an offender here: it sets such an unrealistic standard of gameplay while modeling bad player behaviors. Both of these facts stem from the thing that drives me wild about Dimension 20, and that’s that whatever they say, it’s thoroughly planned and coordinated and probably more than a little scripted. It’s as much “actual play” as the Judge Judy show is a real court of law. I don’t doubt that some of the rolls and some of the banter is real but some of the die rolls are definitely fake and some of the dialogue is absolutely cued.

So people watch it and, having no idea that it’s not actual play, think that when they see these trained improv actors with cheeky, workshopped characters rolling tons of nat 20’s and barely engaging with the rules of the game, and Brennan Lee Mulligan pretending he’s running the entire game in his head without notes because that’s like his whole schtick, that it reflects the reality of D&D.

In fact, such a version of D&D isn’t even desirable to play. What IF every choice you made conveniently keyholed with a nice linear TV-friendly plot? What IF you did just fudge the dice every time it was important for the story?

I’m sure I’d be saying something about Critical Role here if I knew or cared about it. But the point is that too many people are getting into the game with bizarre expectations. And if humoring those expectations is the only way you get to DM, I feel sorry for you.

If this is something you need to hear: if you are a DM/GM and a player expects you to do their part of the game for them, you owe it to yourself and to the other players, and honestly to that player as well, to sit down privately with them and have a conversation about how the game is meant to work and what’s fair for everyone.

Say “I can help you learn to play, but it’s not fair to ask me to play for you.” And ultimately, your goal in that conversation should be to help them learn to play for themselves, but it is very possible that it ends instead with them insisting there is no problem and you gently, and then possibly firmly, suggesting that the group might not be a good fit. And look, if you’re friends with the person, that’s hard! But you’re not a bad person for wanting to enjoy what is, after all, a game.

#the dex thing was because she had some very obscure reason that meant she wanted to go later in the round #so she was trying to get a bad initiative on purpose #she flew off the handle at me because I ruled that an NPC with the same initiative and dex would go after her #I thought I was being polite in letting her go first but fuck me I guess #but honestly I don’t think rules-as-written D&D provides a valid reason to want to go later in the round #D&D

[onsomekindofstartrek]

God, I’m seeing a post about D&D players who expect their DM’s to do all the work of managing their character sheets and gameplay and I’m like… what DM’s put up with that? I’m not blaming the DM’s but I feel like expectations have been mismanaged to get to that point.

I do think Dimension 20 is an offender here: it sets such an unrealistic standard of gameplay while modeling bad player behaviors. Both of these facts stem from the thing that drives me wild about Dimension 20, and that’s that whatever they say, it’s thoroughly planned and coordinated and probably more than a little scripted. It’s as much “actual play” as the Judge Judy show is a real court of law. I don’t doubt that some of the rolls and some of the banter is real but some of the die rolls are definitely fake and some of the dialogue is absolutely cued.

So people watch it and, having no idea that it’s not actual play, think that when they see these trained improv actors with cheeky, workshopped characters rolling tons of nat 20’s and barely engaging with the rules of the game, and Brennan Lee Mulligan pretending he’s running the entire game in his head without notes because that’s like his whole schtick, that it reflects the reality of D&D.

In fact, such a version of D&D isn’t even desirable to play. What IF every choice you made conveniently keyholed with a nice linear TV-friendly plot? What IF you did just fudge the dice every time it was important for the story?

I’m sure I’d be saying something about Critical Role here if I knew or cared about it. But the point is that too many people are getting into the game with bizarre expectations. And if humoring those expectations is the only way you get to DM, I feel sorry for you.

If this is something you need to hear: if you are a DM/GM and a player expects you to do their part of the game for them, you owe it to yourself and to the other players, and honestly to that player as well, to sit down privately with them and have a conversation about how the game is meant to work and what’s fair for everyone.

Say “I can help you learn to play, but it’s not fair to ask me to play for you.” And ultimately, your goal in that conversation should be to help them learn to play for themselves, but it is very possible that it ends instead with them insisting there is no problem and you gently, and then possibly firmly, suggesting that the group might not be a good fit. And look, if you’re friends with the person, that’s hard! But you’re not a bad person for wanting to enjoy what is, after all, a game.

#the judge Judy show is binding arbitration #not actual civil court. #d&d

[onsomekindofstartrek]

Wow, I have trouble believing that a pair of camo bib overalls and an M4 with a grenade projector isn’t something from the realm of science fiction.

#imagine being the kind of asshole who would be on the fence about joining the air force #see this and go ‘hell yeah I’m doing it’ #the halo of f-35’s is a nice touch #this man represents the apotheosis of stupid government spending and shitty engineering

[onsomekindofstartrek]

No but it’s the rarest one, an S-6, based not on the tonewheel system but on the Novachord vacuum tube keyboard that was basically an early synthesizer. It’s the organ from “Blue Jay Way.”

It has chord buttons like an accordion and a knee lever like a harmonium. God it’s so sick.

God I do not need another Hammond organ. Somebody stop me it’s literally 90 bucks.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

God I do not need another Hammond organ. Somebody stop me it’s literally 90 bucks.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

nice villainous monologue. however, you're holding your wine glass cupped in your palm, warming the wine and defeating the purpose of using a stemmed glass in the first place. cretin

#also red wine and brandy should be served at room or body temperature that’s like basic alcohol knowledge

[onsomekindofstartrek]

who knew that understanding basic music theory actually helps you understand why a guitar is Like That

#it’s still the worst stringed instrument as far as tuning and fingering goes #I’ve played it for nigh thirty years and I still think mandolin and violin make more sense

[onsomekindofstartrek]

[onsomekindofstartrek]

I’ve brought this up before but it really strikes me how similar Fury Road is thematically to that episode of Firefly called “Heart of Gold.”

Am I wrong or do both have a moment where the villain is demanding a pregnant woman be brought to him, and both literally say “that’s my child, that’s my property”?

#I’m sorry but I’m a firefly apologist #joss whedon’s complicated legacy is complicated #if he only made bad shows it would be simple actually #he’d just be a bad director and a bad person #but we have to cope with the fact that an abusive douchebag made one of the best sci fi shows ever #just like we have to cope with Kubrick and others being monsters

[onsomekindofstartrek]

I hate that when I became an atheist, I muttered a quote under my breath, and later realized that it was from Gundam 00.

#‘in this world of ours there is no god…’

[onsomekindofstartrek]

I had a dream that I was going to a university in Carthage

Yes, Carthage, the city-state that was destroyed by Rome over 2,000 years ago. I guess they're back