I imagine there are some "written in blood" laws and regulations that apply to hotels that airbnb is ignoring, too. That should also be addressed.

I read that airbnb lead to rents rise, because it made it so easy for landlords to run their property like hotels. I don't use them, and kind of think lowly of people that are like "well it's convenient so i don't care".

Feels like there should be large disruptive protests around wherever ICE is headquartered. Surely they have offices?

"death and life of great American cities" by Jacobs talks about this. The suburban mode where everything is car focused and isolated is really bad. Having spaces with foot traffic and community is much better for people.

They're not thinking. They're feeling. It's a world of emotions.

All of us do that sometimes. Unfortunately, some people do it when stakes are high like elections, rather than fairly harmless emotional choices like "I want the 1d12 sword instead of 2d6 because the 12 feels bigger"

I do believe that DND is a poor first RPG, and creates a weird survivor bias in the hobby. Because it's so popular most people try it as their first RPG, and then some of them hate it. Some of them then think the whole hobby is like that, and then leave.

So the bulk of the people left in the hobby are people who like dnd, or at least tolerate it enough to stick around.

One of my friends has no real interest in fantasy, tactical combat (as much as DND is that), or resource management. They had no interest in DND. But they really liked Vampire.

I keep trying to get people to play fate, but all of these games struggle with finding people who will show up. Everyone seems to be just barely holding it together, and asking them to be creative and present once a week seems like a big request

Ah yes because famously the good samaritan paid the innkeeper with fake money. (Not that I expect most self described christians to know any of their bible stories with any accuracy or detail)

I think Godwin's law was meant for like arguing about tabs vs spaces, or other low stakes things.

But as discussed elsewhere, conservatives have abysmal literacy and analytical skills, so it's not surprising they wouldn't understand when a comparison is merited.

Musk should really be removed from power.

I think it depends on how often they're coming up with dubious takes, and how often there are repeats.

Like if you have to explain that gay people are just trying to live life, and that's fixing misinformation they got as a youth, fine. Good, even. But if you have that talk and then have to have to again a month later because they "forgot" or picked up more bad ideas? Concerning.

Friend of a friend was always getting talks to patch up his dicey world view, but then he'd go back to the same YouTube or shitty friends and come back two weeks later with a fresh batch of bad ideas. Really have to get to the root of the problem

I love Fate and think it's much more intuitive. DND tends to crush player creativity with a lot of "sorry that's just flavor", and guides players towards "just move and attack".

This is a pretty interesting link. I knew the low literacy rate fact before, but from a different source.

The economic cost of low literacy in the U.S. is estimated at $2.2 trillion annually due to productivity losses.

Filing this under "conservatives are so stupid. so fucking stupid.". they want to save money by gutting education and that's just ass-backwards.

The New York City one had a pretty good turnout today

I’m not sure I agree about splitting hit and damage feeling weird,

It feels weird to me when you roll a really big number to hit their AC, and then roll the minimum for damage. Or the other way, where you just barely roll their AC and then roll max damage. There are narrative ways you could justify it, but I don't see why you would want to. It's not adding anything worth having to the experience, imo. The game doesn't care if you beat the check by 0 or 20. It's just an extra step and the information is discarded.

I think pf2e fixes this.

Forgot in my original: DND 5e barely has a concept of degree of success

DND is not a good universal game system. It's pretty good at being DND, but that's a particular beast that's mostly about resource management.

You can definitely use it for a game about social intrigue, or horror, or modern day anything, but it's not really good at any of that. Like using a hammer to put screws in, you'll probably get something done, and if you're hanging with your friends you'll probably have a good time. But it's a weird tool to reach for.

Personally, I don't think the core of the rules system is very good at all. Flat probability feels weird. Armor as all-or-nothing is weird. Hit and damage being split into two rolls is slow and weird. In the latest edition, making very few choices about your character often feels bad. Levels are a very coarse unit of growth. The magic system somehow manages to make magic not feel like magic- no wonder, no mystery, it's just safe and standardized. I could go on.

But it's mega popular and people are emotionally invested, so there's not much to be done about it. There are dozens of people playing the thousands of other games out there.

Also a lot of people have never played anything else, so their analysis and defense of it is often lacking. Like if I've only ever played baseball, and never even watched any other sports, I wouldn't feel qualified to talk about bowling. But you get people saying like "no you need to wear cleats that's a universal property of sports" when bowling comes up. Like, not every game has six stats. Not every game has attributes like that at all.

And again, if you're having fun with dnd then that's the primary goal achieved. We don't need to maximize fun and efficiency in all things all times. I just think that it would be a good experience to branch out more, even if it's scary, because that will lead to a richer experience overall.

It's kind of hard to take the NYT seriously after they've spent more than a decade failing to really take a stand against the right wing, but I guess better tepid and late than never?