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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • It’s good to be cautious about nonprofit organizations, but in the case of DSI, they’ve been around a while, have a good reputation, and score well on third-party sites like Charity Navigator.

    I’d also like to make clear that their Dark Sky Sanctuary certification isn’t a scientific one based solely on light pollution, but also that the local/state/etc governments have implemented certain policies to help ensure the area remains a dark sky area. It’s best to think of it akin to something like a designated “wilderness” or “wildlife sanctuary” area, but for starry skies. Because DSI works with governments to certify these areas, you’re right that certain regions are likely to be more represented, and some not represented at all due to geographic and political barriers.

    P.S. I’m not affiliated with DSI, but have used their accreditations in the past to pick wilderness areas to visit for hiking/camping/photography.



  • Traditionally in systems like D&D and Pathfinder, Wisdom is more representative of inherent common sense, awareness, and intuition and Intelligence representative of the ability to reason and learn. What actually represents accumulated knowledge is your bonus in the related skill, which is a combination of ranks (representative of time spent training/studying that skill) plus inherent bonus (in the case of knowledge, usually Intelligence since Int is representative of your ability to learn).

    Some skills end up seeming like they should be a bit of both though. For example, Healing/Medicine requires knowledge of anatomy, ailments, treatments, etc (which would be Int aligned) but actually diagnosing and using it requires perception to recognize symptoms and often some intuitive choices about how best to treat ailments (which is more Wisdom aligned). It’s simpler to just pick one, and often Wisdom is chosen to avoid too many things being Int.