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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • I don’t completely object to family entertainment, as the good stuff is usually fun for adults too. But there’s also a big difference between the really good stuff and well, everything else. I mostly just wanted to avoid the Hocus Pocus, Hotel Transylvania, and “some random Disney channel crap from the 90s/2000s” that tend to pad out lists of non-horror Halloween movies.

    My SO loves Coraline, I thought it was enjoyable enough. Although we watched it not long after watching They Live, which also has Keith David, which lead to a lot of joking about a scene mirroring the famous alley fight, but with buttons instead of sunglasses.

    We watched Over the Garden Wall, liked the spooky parts, but wished the little brother would have been MIA for the entire series.

    I know of Paranorman, I’ve had it on the list for a while, added when we felt like we were running out of options. Neither of us have seen it and we don’t know much about it, so it’s been a lower priority, but not ruled out.






  • Makeitstop@lemmy.worldtoRPGMemes @ttrpg.network500 Hours in MS Paint
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    6 days ago

    This argument just dismisses all criticism of the rules and implies that the “game” portion of the role-playing game is irrelevant. By that logic, the design of D&D 5e (and every single rule and mechanic in it) is no better or worse than any other game, including stuff like F.A.T.A.L.

    If the rules don’t matter, why bother? Why buy books, learn a whole system, and go through the effort of trying to use a specific RPG instead of just doing free form role-play?

    If they do matter, then they can and will impact the quality of your experience in positive and negative ways. They can be well designed, easy to understand, and effective at serving their purpose, or they can be poorly designed, incomplete, confusing or nonfunctional.

    Sure, you can ignore rules when you don’t want to follow them, and you can do your own thing and homebrew it if you like. You can also ignore the ending of a book and write your own headcanon, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any point in criticizing bad writing.

    To put this another way, why have rule books and a character sheet with all those numbers on it? Why not just flip a coin whenever you want uncertainty about an outcome? Would a game with only that mechanic be just as effective as D&D at providing the type of experience that D&D is trying to create? If not, then why not? What makes the big complicated mess of rules that is D&D better than my single rule RPG?




  • For physical tasks that require little higher brain function but just need me to not zone out or chase a distraction, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts. It’s about the only way I can get stuff done around the house.

    For tasks that require real brain power, I stick to original scores from movies and games. No lyrics, easy to find something with the right level of intensity for your mood, and generally designed to compliment an existing experience rather than be your sole focus.

    Extended loops of Brothers in Arms from Mad Max Fury Road and Mountains from Interstellar have saved my ass in many a crisis. And the hour long Skyrim morning exploration mix and Witcher relaxation mix combined have probably doubled my creative output.