I once got to do a tour of a historic fort, and when we visited the magazine the guide told us that garrisoned soldiers were issued wooden button fly trousers. They couldn’t use a zipper because a spark might set off the gunpowder, and also they hadn’t been invented yet.

Pluto is and will always be Hot Shit.

Actually, it’s very cold on Pluto. Which makes Pluto cooler than Fonzie

3 hours of debugging can save you 30 minutes of reading the documentation

I suppose people will always do what they think is easiest

When you consider that a lot of their customers are pretty entrenched in Amazon’s services, “Boycott Amazon for a week” is more achievable than, “Boycott Amazon forever.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see people give up on Amazon forever. But sometimes taking a week off is long enough for people to change their shopping habits.

Although I suppose the insidious thing about Amazon is that they only offer an annual subscription so I doubt people are cancelling their service for a week.

TTRPGs are quite diverse, but generally speaking they follow a similar formula. Traditionally, play takes place around a table, but even that’s negotiable. Many people play exclusively online these days.

Depending on the system you choose to play, accessories such as minis and battlemats could be optional. However, if you favour a tactical game and want to engage with all the combat rules, they do become more important.

There’s always alternatives though. I don’t keep minis for all my creatures - as a DM, who could afford to? Personally I use paper tokens because they’re easy to whip up and doodle on. Many people use coins, legos, or colored blocks. Anything can stand as a proxy of it’s the right size. There are tales of people who use candy so players can eat what they kill.

Another option, particularly if you go for the online option, is to use a Virtual Tabeletop (VTT). This is software that simulates your table, battlemat, minis, and generally facilitates play. I find them complicated and kind of fiddly, but a lot of people like them.

At the end of the day, you don’t need all that. There’s a concept of play called the Theater of the Mind where players use their shared imagination instead of any accessories. It’s easier when there aren’t a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but if you prefer a narratively focused game then it’s a good way to play.

As far as how to play the game, that’s up to the individual system. However generally speaking you play by having a conversation. The DM describes a situation and then asks “What do you do?” Players then describe their actions. Turn-taking can be more or less rigid depending on the situation. In D&D in particular, turns become much more formal during combat where players take turns in Initiative Order.

Generally speaking, near the start of the rule book (if you have one) there will be an Example of Play. This is usually styled as a transcript of a conversation between players. I always thought those were neat, and they dona pretty good job of showing how a game might play

Getting into the hobby can be intimidating because there are a lot of rules in certain systems, and it can be hard to keep track of them all.

Almost all systems include (or should include) Rule Zero, or Have Fun - the most important rule of all.

If you’re running the game then all rules are optional. As long as everyone is having fun then you can play however you want.

Anyway, I ramble a lot, but I’ve been playing these games for a long time. You’re in for a fun new hobby, good luck getting your group together!

I use a thumbs up reaction as “I acknowledge I’ve read and understood this, but don’t think you require a push notification” so I guess your mileage may vary

Several years ago, HotS went into “Maintenance Mode” which means it isn’t receiving further updates although the servers are still up for now.

Which is such a shame. I’m not big on MOBAs but that was my favorite

I don’t like it very much, but the price is right.

I used to play Overwatch, and abandoned it shortly after the Overwatch 2 debacle. A bunch of my friends kept up with OW2, and when Rivals came out they made the switch so I figured I’d give it a go.

Season 0 was rough. It’s on Season 1 now and things are a bit better.

Hitboxes are bad. Maps seem confusing, although that might be that my game sense hasn’t figured them out yet. Lag is an issue a lot of the time, and the game crashes more than I feel it ought to - but I’m on Linux which I feel isn’t officially supported.

I saw an article the other day criticizing that you can’t type “Free Taiwan” into the chat. I guess I haven’t actually tested it to confirm, but gosh that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I don’t go in for the battlepass, but my friends usually do when they play a game and they say it’s fair. They do have a model that allows you to purchase the battlepass and then continue to fill it out even after it’s no longer the current season. So if it takes you a long time to finish content, you’re not forced into playing more games for fear of missing out.

When it’s fun, it’s a lot of fun. When it’s bad, my goodness, it’s bad. I guess it depends on how willing you are to gamble with your feelings. But hey, I guess you’re coming from League, so you might be ;)

I would love to be able to gift my unplayed games to others.

I guess you do get into a problem where a group of people might swap the game back and forth to avoid ever having to pay for the game. But people will abuse any system, so I guess that would just be a cost of it

If a game is still within the refund window, then maybe it should have an option to gift it. The devs / publishers could keep their money and Steam doesn’t have to process a refund. Seems like a win-win

A saw a graphic the other day that was comparing the number of frames generated between the 4x and 5x, and people in the comments were saying that the 5x uses AI frame generation to speed things up

People in the know would know that AI is largely hype, and the generated frames probably don’t look as good as if they had been properly rendered

I paid a dollar for this two weeks ago

Worth it

I’m not in healthcare, so I’m not sure how valuable my opinion is

If I had to guess, I’d say that there’s a cost associated with a patient refusing care, particularly if the condition is going to be aggravated.

This cost might be financial. It might also mean that the patient returns to the healthcare system and requires more intense care. It probably also means that the patient will suffer more while outside the system.

I don’t know what your healthcare system looks like, but mine is stretched to the breaking point. If someone discharged themselves against the advice of doctors and then later worsened and returned to the hospital, they might die waiting for triage. It’s an extremely bad look for the hospital and erodes the public’s opinion of healthcare. And while the hospital is being raked over the coals for allowing someone to die in the waiting room, the media will conveniently ignore that the patient previously discharged themselves against the advice of their doctor.

Another scenario to think about: just because a patient is cognizant doesn’t mean they’re behaving rationally. While the patient is in care they could be heavily medicated and not realize how bad their situation would be without care: until the meds wear off and their suffering returns. If they got a particularly bad prognosis, then the panicky ape brain could take over and they just want to get out of their, damn the consequences.

Does all that add up to being more important than the patient’s autonomy? Opinions will probably be divided. I don’t personally think so, if I was restrained against my will I’d be pretty angry about it. But I understand the rationale behind the people who want to keep their patient in the system.

Does that mean YOU have to care? Probably not. People should be free to make their own decisions, and you can’t and shouldn’t take responsibility for the decisions that they make.

They’ll pay you peanuts to protect their gold. The only gold trickling down is a shower

What tool are we going to use to measure the bias of the bias meter?

That’s crazy, how can somebody not know what brand of laptop they…

HOLY SHIT ME TOO

Mandatory tipping is baloney. I feel like there’s a word for when you charge a required percentage on a transaction, but I’m taxing myself trying to think of it

I don’t get why restaurateurs think they’re special and don’t need to pay their employees a living wage.

Friendly reminder to DMs that Counter Spell is a reaction, so after your fireball gets counter-counter-counter-counter-counter-counter-counterspelled you can just have some other mook cast another.

I mean, you shouldn’t counter-counter-counter-counterspell if you can help it. But having multiple casters in an encounter adds some more strategizing, especially if you have a scenario where a player might want to hold their reaction for something else.

Yeah, I’m not sure this is the generational thing that the author is trying to make it out to be. It seems to me like one of those things that leans on personal preference.

The author’s sample for the behavior of generations is a few anecdotes from personal friends. How many friends does a person have, 3, or 30, or 300? That means n is pretty small when there’s something like 3 billion mellenials

Often times, people learn that the stove is hot by touching it.

It’s easier to blame the stove than the person who touched it. But if you laugh when you watch it happen, you’re probably not laughing at the stove.

Pastor, pastor
Pastor of muppets, I’m pulling your strings
Growing your mind and hearing your dreams
Listen to me, I’ll teach you some things
Just call my name 'cause I’m on your team
Pastor, pastor
Just call my name 'cause I’m on your team
Pastor, pastor