What You've Done Today - Keep Dreaming...

[Fionavar]

Back to work ... so work things

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

40 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

I still don't know if I've ever had the Rona. I suspect I have, given my job and all the people I'm constantly around at truck stops, but I've never gotten tested because I've never had a reason to get tested. I'm either really lucky and have completely avoided it for 3 years or I'm really lucky and have been asymptomatic.

I think I may have had it early in 2020 (before March early), but I didn't get really sick from it until last year. Suffice to say there wasn't any doubt this time and that time.

20 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I'm good now, all in all the symptoms were really light this time around. Probably because last time I had it was like half a year ago. Glad to hear you are better.

That's good. Well not good but better than the alternatives.

[Gfted1]

55 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

I'm either really lucky and have completely avoided it for 3 years or I'm really lucky and have been asymptomatic.

Same. But Ive taken a few home tests just for the experience. Always negative.

[Malcador]

6 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

Same. But Ive taken a few home tests just for the experience. Always negative.

Only did two, wasn't necessary really but with parents better safe than sorry.  Very negative experience

[Gfted1]

51 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Only did two, wasn't necessary really but with parents better safe than sorry.  Very negative experience

Could be worse: Value of anal swabs for SARS-COV-2 detection: a literature review - PMC (nih.gov)  WTH, China?

[Azdeus]

Johnny Depp trials; Complete disinterest, even annoyance at people caring.

OGL hullabaloo; FEED ME EVERYTHING! MOAR!

..

Yeah, I've been binging every youtube vid, reddit post and such that I've come across.

@Gromnir Hey, you ought to have a lil' bit of insider info here; Why, seemingly, are there so many lawyers playing dnd? Is it the rules-lawyering-thing, there being a lack of a board for DnD rules lawyering that y'all go for the "next best thing"?

[Gromnir]

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!

Edited January 12, 2023 by Gromnir

[Azdeus]

5 hours ago, Gromnir said:

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!

It's always funny to hear anecdotes

Also, it's tickles me that "ok money" is more than what a senior doctor or specialist makes over here. Hell, I make a quarter of that. Anecdotal observation; I've played with alot of people, and the minority over here has been suburbanites, most have been from what is the "boonies" here and the vast majority have **** jobs, way below the median. Funnily, the first girl that started playing with us became a lawyer though, which is crazy since she is dyslexic. But, good thing were socialists, we could get RPG books tax free As for women, I've met a few, but the vast, vast majority has been into LARP more than pen and paper. I've yet to meet anyone that's not pasty as **** though

So what you're saying is... you're an advocate for rule zero...

My group first got into D&D quite late, we started with Warcraft and then Wheel of Time, but didn't touch D&D proper until I started a campaing around 8 years ago or so, in 3.5e. That said, the rules weren't nearly as bad as Warhammer 40K: Black Crusade. It was still immensly fun though, but that was despite the horrible ruleset. It was the first edition where they let players loose on the talent tree without any rank restrictions, so you'd immediately get the best über murder talents from the getgo instead of after 6 months campaigning. And the Corruption/Gifts from the Gods system was quite bonkers aswell...

That said, rules lawyering is very much why I hate 5e. There are so many little fine details in spells and abilities that you have to remind people of all the time that I grow weary of it. It's a bit better when playing it online since people can read the ability/spell blurb without having to reach for a book. Such as Unarmed strikes are "melee weapon attacks," but they are not "attacks with a melee weapon" because they are not actually made with a physical weapon. There's a subtle difference and it matters RAW.

Edit; Have you read anything about the OGL 1.1?

Edited January 12, 2023 by Azdeus

[Gromnir]

10 minutes ago, Azdeus said:

Edit; Have you read anything about the OGL 1.1?

have read nothing save having seen a few headlines saying hasbro/wotc is pulling a darth vader and changing the deal

am recalling years past when asked similar we observed/warned that the ogl didn't specify it were "irrevocable," which meant it was in all likelihood revocable at will. as such, the current meltdown has us conflicted as we feel a smidge smug 'bout being proven correct while also experiencing disgust that hasbro/wotc went and did it.

and yeah, am a big proponent o' rule zero. we would prefer play than gm, but when we gm am invariably adding a bunch o' house rules and am making clear if we feel is necessary we will change rules on-the-fly. am also open to players suggesting changes if Gromnir homebrew prove unworkable, but rulez lawyering is kinda verboten with us...

is exceptions when am thinking the results is clever and amusing w/o breaking the game. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Azdeus]

11 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

have read nothing save having seen a few headlines saying hasbro/wotc is pulling a darth vader and changing the deal

am recalling years past when asked similar we observed/warned that the ogl didn't specify it were "irrevocable," which meant it was in all likelihood revocable at will. as such, the current meltdown has us conflicted as we feel a smidge smug 'bout being proven correct while also experiencing disgust that hasbro/wotc went and did it.

and yeah, am a big proponent o' rule zero. we would prefer play than gm, but when we gm am invariably adding a bunch o' house rules and am making clear if we feel is necessary we will change rules on-the-fly. am also open to players suggesting changes if Gromnir homebrew prove unworkable, but rulez lawyering is kinda verboten with us...

is exceptions when am thinking the results is clever and amusing w/o breaking the game. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Yeah, basically. It'll be interesting to see if anyone takes them to court over it. Doubt anyone has that kind of cashflow besides maybe Paizo though.

I know how you feel, I've felt the same way about observations I've made myself about things. Does it matter though that such language (As some have said) wasn't in use at that time? And does it matter that the author of the original document has gone on video saying that that was the intent behind it?

Haha, yeah, anything can fly if it makes for a great story in my eyes Though in hindsight, it was a mistake to let the Shadowrun mage enchant rubber balls with fireballs... But was funny at the time!

[Gromnir]

15 minutes ago, Azdeus said:

I know how you feel, I've felt the same way about observations I've made myself about things. Does it matter though that such language (As some have said) wasn't in use at that time? And does it matter that the author of the original document has gone on video saying that that was the intent behind it?

irrevocable is a term o' art 'bout which which multiple courts has written opinions. given the lack o' meaningful consideration, am not seeing a way around this. if some guy from queens is making knock-off dallas cowboys hats and t-shirts in his garage, would be tough to suggest the nfl and dallas cowboys is benefitting 'cause their brand is seeing wider exposure, which were the terribad argument we has seen offered in the past for how the ogl benefits wotc and hasbro and fulfills the consideration aspects o' K (contracts) law. 

is not specific our area o' expertise, and am not offering our observations as legal advice for those considering legal action 'ganst wotc and hasbro, but recognizing is not something we has considered for years, our initial gut reaction, which is worth absolute Zero, were only surprise it has taken so long for some nogoodnik suit to pull the plug on the fun. 

HA! Good Fun! 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Gromnir

[Azdeus]

1 hour ago, Gromnir said:

irrevocable is a term o' art 'bout which which multiple courts has written opinions. given the lack o' meaningful consideration, am not seeing a way around this. if some guy from queens is making knock-off dallas cowboys hats and t-shirts in his garage, would be tough to suggest the nfl and dallas cowboys is benefitting 'cause their brand is seeing wider exposure, which were the terribad argument we has seen offered in the past for how the ogl benefits wotc and hasbro and fulfills the consideration aspects o' K (contracts) law. 

is not specific our area o' expertise, and am not offering our observations as legal advice for those considering legal action 'ganst wotc and hasbro, but recognizing is not something we has considered for years, our initial gut reaction, which is worth absolute Zero, were only surprise it has taken so long for some nogoodnik suit to pull the plug on the fun. 

HA! Good Fun! 

Heh, since the ogl basically saved wotc from the brink of ruin and grew to be 50% of Hasbros revenue I'd say it'd be easy to suggest just that  

That said, I do hope the wither from this, alot of the subcontractors have announced that they are leaving, some are going to get the blackjack and hookers and such.

[Gromnir]

6 minutes ago, Azdeus said:

Heh, since the ogl basically saved wotc from the brink of ruin and grew to be 50% of Hasbros revenue I'd say it'd be easy to suggest just that  

 

were the ogl responsible for massive wotc growth? have seen it argued the ogl did little to add revenue to wotc/hasbro and its main value were that it was seen as a way to  make dnd less palatable to a larger and adversarial publisher who might acquire and then kill, but am honest doing little more than posting stuff we recall posted by ex-wotc bloggers. we got no hard data and am admitting it were never something we followed close.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Azdeus]

28 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

were the ogl responsible for massive wotc growth? have seen it argued the ogl did little to add revenue to wotc/hasbro and its main value were that it was seen as a way to  make dnd less palatable to a larger and adversarial publisher who might acquire and then kill, but am honest doing little more than posting stuff we recall posted by ex-wotc bloggers. we got no hard data and am admitting it were never something we followed close.

HA! Good Fun!

I don't have anything in print about it, but it was related by Ryan Dancey on a vodcast I saw yesterday, unless I really missunderstood him. It wasn't until they released the OGL that people actually started using dnd and really showing interest through things like the offshoots. Things dipped a bit when they tried and failed to replace the OGL with the release of 4e and GSL, which failed so spectacularly that we got Pathfinder. Things took a big upturn with 5e again though and them returning to the OGL, and their overall earnings reflect this.

From what he said the reason why this is happening now is that someone realized that wotc was the majority of hasbros income, the earnings calls that has been made up until recently has only had people asking about things like GI joe and such until someone finally brought up wotc. Which would explain why noone has tried this earlier.

[Azdeus]

Haha, theres a run for D&D beyond subscription cancelling right now, I can't even access the site to cancel my account, nor can I access their site where their account removal email is XD

[Gfted1]

Works for me: D&D Beyond - An official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) (dndbeyond.com)

[Azdeus]

I should have said page

Edit; Atleast I managed to access the support page to delete my account, so there's that

Edited January 12, 2023 by Azdeus

[Azdeus]

Nor could I backup any characters

[Malcador]

Resignations means I have no veteran back up for about 6 hours each day, fantastic

 

[majestic]

Why do people insist on having calls to discuss issues that could easily be explained in a two line instant message or e-mail? 

Hey, there's a wrong line break in X.

Or...

- Find a time where everyone is available for a spontaneous call
- Send out invitations and hope everyone sees and accepts in time
- Set up hardware
- Connect
- Wait for everyone else to resolve their headset/cam/connectivity issues
- Meet and greet even if you've talked to each other for ten thousand times
- Smalltalk
- Talk about a wrong line break for two minutes
- More smalltalk
- Goodbyes

You'd think these people get paid by meeting count. Sheesh.

There's a reason the OSS field manual for sabotage operations suggested setting up as many meetings as possible to bog down decisions and workload.  

[Sarex]

18 minutes ago, majestic said:

Why do people insist on having calls to discuss issues that could easily be explained in a two line instant message or e-mail? 

Hey, there's a wrong line break in X.

Or...

- Find a time where everyone is available for a spontaneous call
- Send out invitations and hope everyone sees and accepts in time
- Set up hardware
- Connect
- Wait for everyone else to resolve their headset/cam/connectivity issues
- Meet and greet even if you've talked to each other for ten thousand times
- Smalltalk
- Talk about a wrong line break for two minutes
- More smalltalk
- Goodbyes

You'd think these people get paid by meeting count. Sheesh.

There's a reason the OSS field manual for sabotage operations suggested setting up as many meetings as possible to bog down decisions and workload.  

Why are you so antisocial! /s

[majestic]

5 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Why are you so antisocial! /s

Experience.  

 

[Malcador]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

Why do people insist on having calls to discuss issues that could easily be explained in a two line instant message or e-mail?

Need to fill that timesheet in somehow.

[LadyCrimson]

Noah's Forecast: rain with gusty wind, then some more rain, more wind, and then more rain. Oh, wait, 7 days from now it might only be partly cloudy.

Since hubby took my car for a few days (his van developed a windshield leak) I can't go drive in the rain. But I'm currently about to toss on a hooded rainjacket, to go for a puddle-walk around the neighborhood. Because even if I'm not eight anymore, it's still fun/refreshing. Plus I'm bored of staring at a wall while using the elliptical.

[Hurlshort]

13 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

Noah's Forecast: rain with gusty wind, then some more rain, more wind, and then more rain. Oh, wait, 7 days from now it might only be partly cloudy.

Since hubby took my car for a few days (his van developed a windshield leak) I can't go drive in the rain. But I'm currently about to toss on a hooded rainjacket, to go for a puddle-walk around the neighborhood. Because even if I'm not eight anymore, it's still fun/refreshing. Plus I'm bored of staring at a wall while using the elliptical.

Clearly you need a screen in front of that elliptical.

Or get one of these new exercise MMO's that make you grind levels by doing physical activity.  

edit: I'm pretty happy running in the rain. Riding the bike is miserable though.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Hurlshort