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Everything posted by Gromnir
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serious answer: is upwards o' 1.3 million lawyers, so from only a crude numbers perspective, is a better than fair chance you will see a few attorneys in any large gathering. demographics suggest pnp role-players is mostly white, male and suburban. the number o' women is almost 40%, so not bad for XX representation. similar numbers for crpgs... weird. data suggests role-players is excruciating white btw. better than 2/3 is under 40 years of age. for those who is employed, tends to be people making ok money--last we saw were $115,000, but that were tenish years past. the most represented occupations were sales, finance and marketing... industries most common were finance, transportation and software. college degree is only 30%, but am suspecting much o' that is 'cause is 'cause age o' role-players still tends young and you got a large number o' gamers in their teens and early 20s being represented. anecdotal: for the first couple years on the interplay boards, nobody knew we were an attorney, 'cause we don't tell folks in passing. a guy name shadowspawn outed us with info we had shared in private, though to be fair is not as if we swore him to secrecy. shadow asked what we did in rl and we responded, mentioning we ordinary don't share... at which point he then shared with the community. *insert eye roll* cat were outta the bag. am suspecting is a few lawyer role-players who you ain't aware is lawyers... and perhaps a few pretenders as well. aside, Gromnir and the handful o' attorneys we know from role-play groups, tend to be rules zero advocates as 'posed to rulez lawyers, though admitted am old, so is possible more an age thing than profession. example(s): dnd 2nd edition were an absolute mess as it were mostly 1st edition but with popular sh!te from convention module gameplay and dragon magazine articles just kinda dumped into a vitamax pro-blender set on 10. 2nd edition were almost unplayable w/o a frequent application of rule zero. one o' the more amusing and enduring loopholes were 3e dnd, and am not even referencing the monk stuff or harm but rather undead and their fort saves. undead in 3e and beyond has 0 constitution, which results in relative terrible fort saves. 'course undead is immune to most fort save effects such as disease and poison. the thing is, undead physical form is treated as objects, and 3e spells such as shatter and disintegrate is highly effective against objects. 3e disintegrate and shatter provided fort saves. rulez lawyerz realized offing any corporeal undead up to and including a demi-lich were ez peasy and they would fight tooth and nail those gm/dm who rolled their eyes and implemented house rules to keep undead encounters game challenging and fun. not surprising, later editions made so undead used charisma or will to be replacing fort when making fort saves, but again, age gives us perspective. am always amused by the rules lawyerz who somehow is more invested in winning the game than in making the game fun for everybody. these games weren't written by lawyerz who looks for every loophole. virtual every game system is broken from the very start and gms and players need be both reasonable and rational if they wanna see a campaign last. oh, and our not so clever disguised disgust o' the rules lawyerz/purists who earnest believed poe should adopt every bad bg2/dnd feature is in part 'cause o' decades o' rejection o' the rules lawyerz pov. HA! Good Fun!
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new orleans is one o' our favorite US cities to visit due in no small part to fact we enjoy good food and music. is the only location we look for turtle soup on every menu. ... in the US, august and september is historical the months hardest hit by hurricanes, but recent years has seen october in new orleans suffer more than its share o' cataclysmic weather events. october is technical hurricane season although late october is ordinarily swell kinda weather with nice temps and more overcast than storms, but am mentioning 'cause in our experience englishmen is frequent nonplussed by "extreme" US weather. HA! Good Fun!
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Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6
Gromnir replied to bugarup's topic in Computer and Console
*chuckle* is no reason to change your mind. the post abyss drezen material is brief and clunky. however, having knowledge o' the pnp ap as well as having played the game multiple times and choosing different mythic paths, am seeing a practical explanation for the added curiously tacked on post abyss content. 'course practicality does not obviate the lack o' deftness displayed. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6
Gromnir replied to bugarup's topic in Computer and Console
the post abyss street fight in drezen is not part o' the pnp ap, so the design choice is square on owlcat. am agreeing the material does feel clunky, but am gonna note the drezen encounters is mythic heavy which likely explains why the street fight(s) were added. for example, previous to the convo with the inheritor, you meet halaseliax, which is kinda your last step on the gold dragon path. does the encounter seem forced? yeah, but again, is the tacked on owlcat specific mythic content which were not easily integrated into act iv. is not ideal to functional shoehorn mythic content in quick before the iomedae encounter, but woulda' been tough to work in the material seamless and unavoidable in the abyss. HA! Good Fun! -
am knowing 0 'bout the new movie. miramar is setting for the first movie and miramar is a marine air station so am s'posing the marine presence at a funeral for an aviator at miramar would make a kinda/sorta sense... but we assume the new movie is set at fallon... maybe? most obvious answer is sailor honor guard just don't look as kewl as the marines. dunno. HA! Good Fun!
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the main character o' the movie ain't a real person. the film is not hiding the fact it is a dramatization. so, yeah, events in the movie obvious ain't gonna be true-to-life in every respect. the thing is you may review war crimes testimony which shows that the stuff you find offensive did take place, many times, but you quibble over a specific event. can take a single scene outta context and miss forest for the trees. but again, am not surprised by skew. edit: "The Srebrenica massacre has become the subject of intense politicization, to the point of genocide denial in some quarters, to which the moral clarity of Zbanic’s film operates like a rebuke. This is not historical revisionism, if anything, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” works to un-revise history, re-centering the victims’ plight as the eye of a storm of evils — not only the massacre itself, but the broader evils of institutional failure and international indifference." is from the variety review we linked. forest v. trees. HA! Good Fun!
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as somebody who has turned down the position, we has insights. good luck to @Mamoulian Warin any event. HA! Good Fun!
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in early 2021 our kyocera dura flip phone became non-functional 'cause it were only compatible up to 3g. we got some kinda samsung android thing as a free replacement, but am admitted much missing the kyocera. were so nice having a phone which were flawless for voice calls and rugged enough to handle Gromnir mountain bike falls/crashes and the like. HA! Good Fun!
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is possible a few boardies have a skew regarding the events which is the subject matter o' the film. am gonna suggest those who is ambivalent maybe check out reviews. ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ Review: Harrowing, Vital Retelling of the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre as have noted previous, the only value we see in reviews is when one is unsure whether a movie is worth their time and money, considering the insights o' a reviewer who you recognize as having opinions which resonate may be helpful in deciding whether or not to view. https://www.metacritic.com/movie/quo-vadis-aida question: would we find a comradeyellow critique o' an elephant sitting still to be persuasive? unlikely. HA! Good Fun!
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keep in mind is not that we got any kinda bias against newer autos. the harsh reality is our skillset is insufficient to be doing much more than change oil and windshield wipers on cars built in the last decade. our first autoshop lesson from high school were taking apart a briggs and stratton lawnmower engine and rebuilding. as you might imagine, there were no computer on the lawnmower engine. if am faced with an ignition issue, our reflex is to look to the distributor. etc. am so last century it is painful. HA! Good Fun!
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am sympathizing. we don't even bother working on any american vehicle built more recent than 1988. HA! Good Fun!
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Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.
Gromnir replied to Chairchucker's topic in Way Off-Topic
as a matter o' clarification, am thinking it is misleading to describe dark materials as anti-christian though is arguable some justification in such a position. am understanding how young readers might have difficulty making such a subtle distinction between christianity as a personal belief and a fantasy Church which is most assured pastiche o' real world catholicism and christian sects. organized religion, specific organized Christianity, is a clear target o' pullman criticism. regardless, a fear o' children asking difficult questions is a position we see as untenable, but is admitted a bit arrogant making such judgements w/o having to deal with the real life difficulties o' raising a child. HA! Good Fun! -
Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.
Gromnir replied to Chairchucker's topic in Way Off-Topic
y'know, am thinking the dark materials books is far more likely to result in a middle school kid asking themselves and their parents tough questions than would be a reading o' atlas shrugged. in that sense, phillip pullman is far more dangerous to Christian dogma than is ayn rand. 'course am not thinking faith has value unless it is resilient in the face o' tough questions, but am also simultaneous not without empathy for the parent afeared for their crumb snatcher's immortal soul and recognizing they just don't have the capacity to answer the questions young bartimaeus is plagued by after reading the subtle knife. am not making excuses for clergy or parents who instead o' discussing challenging topics with kids decide that ignorance is bliss, but am understanding their not unjustified fears. a child who learns to question fundamental "truths" may very well come to conclusions parents and clergy do not recognize as legitimate or right, and then what does momma bartimaeus do? HA! Good Fun! -
Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.
Gromnir replied to Chairchucker's topic in Way Off-Topic
aside, and admitted spam material from Gromnir, am thinking children's authors is too often overlooked and more than a few writers o' literature and movie fiction would do well to read more kid fiction. is a whole lotta symbolism in stories such as the phantom tollbooth, the chronicles of prydain, coraline, northern lights (the golden compass) and a swiftly tilting planet, but chances are kids miss the symbolism on a conscious level. the capacity to baffle grad students o' literature doesn't confer a level o' inherent worth on a novel. first goal is to make the audience wanna read and finish the work, yes? such an observation should be axiomatic but is nevertheless overlooked too frequent. just one example, but phillip pullman's books is not skimping on symbolism or allegory and is influenced heavily by milton's paradise lost. the character o' lord asriel may paradoxical represent both satan and "son of god" from milton's work. religious themes dominate pullman's novels. is a helluva a lot more going on in pullman's books than is in the typical dickens novel... which if you paid attention to the first part o' this post is so not a criticism o' dickens. complex ≠ better. that said, pullman's books is meant to be enjoyed by kids, who is not sophisticated enough to understand all the author craft... or sleight o' hand if you is annoyed by such pretension. pullman simultaneous challenges the PhD folks while telling a story many young audiences embrace. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 6
Gromnir replied to bugarup's topic in Computer and Console
https://pathfinderwrathoftherighteous.wiki.fextralife.com/Ki+Arrows at fifth level and beyond, with a shortbow a zen archer is doing monk unarmed damage. (edit: can't link even though we added the ki arrows info moments ago.) At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. The damage dealt by a Medium monk's unarmed strike increases with level: 1d6 at levels 1-3, 1d8 at levels 4-7,1d10 at levels 8-11, 2d6 at levels 12-15, 2d8 at levels 16-19, and 2d10 at level 20. If the monk is Small, his unarmed strike damage increases as follows: 1d4 at levels 1-3, 1d6 at levels 4-7, 1d8 at levels 8-11,1d10 at levels 12-15, 2d6 at levels 16-19, and 2d8 at level 20. If the monk is Large, his unarmed strike damage increases as follows: 1d8 at levels 1-3, 2d6 at levels 4-7, 2d8 at levels 8-11, 3d6 at levels 12-15, 3d8 at levels 16-19, and 4d8 at level 20. 'course as a zen archer you use wisdom as your attack bonus modifier, so chances are you is always gonna be enlarged and then legendary proportions for later game. take a few points o' umd and have hurricane bow scrolls on hand for major battles. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 5
Gromnir replied to Gromnir's topic in Computer and Console
if you did all the previous sosiel conversations regarding trever correct, and is not intuitive what is correct, then you do not strictly speaking need to do the fleshmarkets convo with wirlong and sosiel before the battlebliss confrontation. edit: in our opinion, the most annoying aspect o' trever recruitment is you need make the correct convo choice with sosiel on three(ish) separate occasions in acts two and three to be successful. get one interaction wrong many tens o' hours removed from the battlebliss confrontation and your trever recruitment is a fail w/o you being aware o' the error until long after is reasonable to reload and fix the problem. is particular annoying as the correct dialogue choices is... HA! Good Fun! -
Cinema and Movie Thread: I like to remember things my own way.
Gromnir replied to Chairchucker's topic in Way Off-Topic
symbolism is not mutual exclusive from evocative aspects o' story telling, which is precise why emotions and relationships is not elements o' fiction but is hopeful consequences o' skillful used theme, plot, setting, symbolism character, etc. symbolism, when recognized, should amplify an essential quality o' the narrative. sir gawain and the green knight is a bit more character driven than other early english writings, so it actual has more potential modern appeal than other stories written contemporaneous. nevertheless, it does eschew many modern conventions which attempt to focus on the reader empathizing with characters. the green knight movie is a better than fair adaption o' sir gawain and we found the emotional impact impressive. unlike modern stories, sir gawain don't use character backgrounds and motivations to make the characters relatable. these is s'posed to be larger than life events and personages who perhaps only exist in myth. were not necessarily s'posed to be relatable. is in part the symbolism which brings the story down to a more manageable level for audiences who ain't characters outta myth, though the movie does do a much better job o' humanizing and we already noted sir gawain were much better in that regard than most contemporaneous tales. a few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. he watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. the time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. it was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the bog of allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous shannon waves. it was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where michael furey lay buried. it lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. his soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. you may read joyce w/o recognizing the symbolism positive radiating from every paragraph, but when you see the layers o' theme, setting, and symbolism synergizing, you may appreciate a story like the dead on a different and arguable more profound level. minor characters, through symbolism, gain emotional depth otherwise missed. a crpg example, though not specific symbolism, is the use o' macbeth in bg2. irenicus, particular with david warner reading, is ez to appreciate as little more than the typical mage gone mad with power. once you see all the repeated allusion to macbeth, it becomes extended metaphor fodder and then even minor characters such as kalah who is providing foreshadowing for the entire bg2 narrative and also contributing to the macbeth elements, achieves a new depth and possible a new level o' appreciation when such linkages is recognized. viewed insular, kalah is a throw-away character who contributes little to the bg2 narrative and whose name is almost instant forgotten. the thing is, from a storytelling perspective, kalah is much greater than his seeming limited contribution to the bg2 story and his passing is far more evocative when is seen as part o' something much greater than typical low-level side-quest fodder. writers such as the aforementioned joyce all too often become so obscure with their symbolism and themes and is so invested in creating manufactured depth they forget to make a story compelling for an audience other than the author themself and perhaps a handful o' literary scholars with multiple PhDs. is crap writing from our pov if it only works for a handful. symbolism and other elements may contribute to story telling even if they ain't consciously recognized, and am thinking such is the case for green knight, but when the author's goal is to astound a limited audience with his/her deftness and cleverness as 'posed to reaching a broader audience on an emotional level, then am thinking the work has become self indulgent as 'posed to art. nevertheless, each reader or viewer o' story is gonna have a different threshold for what is author fail and we cannot say any specific audience is wrong, even so, am personal seeing the symbolism o' sir gawain and the green knight, which were translated incomplete but well in the recent movie, were adding to the storytelling and made the film more evocative. regardless, symbolism is not s'posed to be separate from emotional appeal. nobody would give a mouse fart for virginia woolf (edit: butchered the spelling virginia's name) if symbolism were divorced from evocative. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 5
Gromnir replied to Gromnir's topic in Computer and Console
is there some reason you ain't resting? multiple rests in drezen is bad as your abyssal corruption increases unseen, but am personal always having rested at least once. make certain to use resting supplies provided. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 5
Gromnir replied to Gromnir's topic in Computer and Console
no, not better than lann. rare does anybody on these boards go pure archer, but a lann zenn archer with a shortbow is an absolute monster and outpaces pretty much any other ranged companion. however, is a few builds with arueshalae and lan multiclass builds which is arguable superior in terms o' what they add to a party, but while a zen archer is front loaded with many benefits coming in the first three levels, a shortbow wielding lann zen archer gets extra attacks and damage other combos will have difficulty reaching, and chances are they only match vanilla zen archer lann very late in the game. don't feel as if you are any kinda underpowered keeping lann as a vanilla zen archer, but perhaps counter-intuitive, do switch to shortbow if you have chosen longbow. zenn archers do monk unarmed damage with a shortbow and this increases with the various size bonuses you will no doubt enjoy. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 5
Gromnir replied to Gromnir's topic in Computer and Console
keep in mind you may do blightmaw after your mythic powerup. is noting which prevents you from coming back to blightmaw as long as it is before your final act ii drezen confrontation. speaking o' shenanigans, the demonslayer level needs come after levels o' sacred huntsmaster. why? 'cause choosing demonslayer first removes demons from your list o' favored enemies for sacred hunstmaster. 1 level o' demonslayer after sacred huntsmaster means you get +8 v. 1 category o' demons and +4 v. the other two categories. unfortunate, while demonslayer favoured enemy bonus does stack with sacred huntsmaster, it effective halts your sacred huntsmaster favoured enemy demons progress. why? why does taking demonslayer early prevent sacred huntsmaster progression o' favoured enemies? 'cause. HA! Good Fun! -
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Part 5
Gromnir replied to Gromnir's topic in Computer and Console
there is a wand of dimension door in a hidden spot on the map where you meet the loquacious kobold in act 2. is the only location for the wand as far as am recalling. kinda a bit far back in the game for you to reload, eh? might wanna check the treasure of the midnight isles vendor albeit not for the wand. initially the chaplain carried 99 scrolls o' just 'bout every spell, but then his inventory were trimmed a bit so am not certain if dimension door were removed along with pillars of life and a few other spells. HA! Good Fun!