Ziggurat

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Ziggurat OP ,

So, here is my approach, in the context of a campaign. On my campaign, I tend to have a short list of NPC/Faction/Place and enjoy keeping the campaign on a shorter space rather than a whole multiverse.

So my technique would involve.

  • Ask the players to give me a summary of latest session, that I'll crosscheck with my notes.

  • Ask the player what they want to do, following these events. having reccuring NPC/Places/factions mean that I can improvise how these person react to the event (if they do). This will easily burn a hour.

  • While all of that happen, I have time to think about how to relaunch the story, either there is an event which absolutely makes sense in the context The local mafia isn't happy that you dismounted their drug production lab, when you come home you find a miniature coffin with a bullet inside in front of your door or, even though it's a bad practice, I throw a "randomish encounter" A big etheral cloud forms over the magic equipement store, and you can see some ethereal creature leaving that cloud and ear screams of bypasser being attacked The latter adds a combat buying me an extra hour to find-out why this shop exploded.

  • Then, I can let the player investigate these events, it may-not be the most complicated investigation I ran, and kinda linear, However, it's enough to keep going to the end of the session, and have new elements to develop for next time

For a one shot ?

In general, I organize them when they're ready, and I have a lot of one-shot scenario ready on my computer, alternative would be pulling a zero prep game.

Ziggurat OP ,

The idea of the Dragon which is just 5 kobolds in a dragon coat is amazing :)

Ziggurat OP ,

Indeed, for C/W oD you can easily have some "standard stats" in mind to build NPC quickly ? Something like 3/5/7 dices depending whether it's beginner/intermediate/master (I haven't GM-it for a while so the formula may-be different) works very well at turning a one sentence description in NPC skill

Ziggurat OP ,

In their defence, Blades in the Dark, set a trend of having a formal downtime phase which is about upgrading team, healing physical and mental wound, and advancing your side project, and IĀ heard player telling me that they've spend 2Ā (short) sessions on it.

Even on more classic games, having the player looking what to buy in the books, then finding a shop having it, negotiation with the shopkeeper and so on, can take a lot of time.

s a DM, Iā€™ve always found it boring as hell.
šŸ‘Maximum DerekšŸ‘
English4ā€¢

I donā€™t really like running them, but my players enjoy it from time to time and it always seems to take half a session.

Ziggurat OP ,

ive your players control of the plot so you donā€™t have to come up with it.

Indeed, this is an under-stated GM tip, player can come up with the plot. It eases the GMĀ life

Ziggurat ,

As in, is any law that restricts peopleā€™s freedom to do something

The problem of this approach is that in that case you refuse any law. Even anarchist would agree that a stateless society need people to agree on common rules.

Speed limit ? restrict your freedom to do something, private property ? Restrict your freedom to go where you want, does restricting your freedom to commit murder feels authoritarian ?

Now what's more authoritarian ? having the state protecing your right to have slave ? Or having the state protecting people freedom by not letting someone enslave them.

Ziggurat ,

Actually, the french secularist law were written more than 100 years ago to kick out nun and priest from public school.

Could I get an autopsy done on myself while I'm alive?

Completely random stoned hypothetical. Lets day im old as fuck and I decide I'm ready and done. Could I have the same postmortem autopsy done on me while I'm still alive? Like give me a ton of drugs and let me watch myself get dissected as my final moments. I understand there is a legal and possibly moral concern, but is it...

Ziggurat ,

In general you cannot consent in being assassinated, and even in place where euthanasia/assisted suicide is legal, there is still a strict process to make-it cleanly rather than cutting down a person in piece

Ziggurat ,

Note that in some case, it's possible to get an earlier check-in. For ordinary customer it might be a paying service, for corporate customer and member of loyalty program it may be a complementary service.
Just give a call to the hotel. Same applies to late check-out it's sometimes possible to check-out at 14 or even 16.

Ziggurat OP ,

So to give my answers from the other thread.

The space between us this has been published during covid as a "larp through webcam" and it was super intense emotionally speaking, I am not going to give any spoiler, but the fact that it started slowly with workshop, and not much happening really helped when the tension started to rise, and the ending was just Waw, don't forget some tissues, because ninja will be cutting onion

In the same category, with a lot of bleed, the famous Alice is missing which is somehow a hybrid betqween boargaming and TTRPG. The theme isn't easy (A kid has gone missing), but it's the theme which trigger a lot of bleed, add the playlist which will put me back in the ambiance if I listen to it again. and again, expect some Ninja to cut onions in the background

I don't think that an english translation is available but anyway, let me say a couple of word about Shadow island a parlour larp in a lovecratian ambiance, about a disfunctional family making a yearly silent dinner, to commemorate the death of "patriarch". Expect long character sheet (mine was around 40 pages, only background as there is almost no rules), an afternoon of workshop before the game starts, and the whole "silent dinner" concept creates a feeling of weirdness long before the "supernatural" kicks in. Do not read it if you don't intend to play it and if it's run near you, just join.

Ziggurat OP ,

Indeed, when PvP is well done, it can lead to pretty amazing memories, the stakes aren't the same as the player aren't trying to let you win. So even though many people would call it a "red flag" it can also be a huge "green flag" and looks like that table was ready for it.

But you're right, having a short discussion about PvP and betrayal in session zero is worth it. Remember that even something as small as the clichƩ elves and dwarves teasing each other is a form of PvPcan end-up in a nightmare with the wrong player, while a full traitor within the PC but playing in a "play to lift" Mood can lead to some of the greatest experience.

Thanks for the comment, now I want to discuss the PvP option before my next campaign session zero.

Ziggurat ,

TIL that Rolls Roys is doing SMR.

I am pretty curious on how this new trend of SMR will evolve in 20 years, I can see how it can be simpler and faster to build than full scale plant. However, I am not sure you'd save by multiplying the NIMBY to deal with and the whole support staff.

Ziggurat ,

I am curious on how school can skip the whole gender identity part considering how central it is in social science and life-science.

i like the idea in saying that boys and girls are the same and that it doesn't impact who they are more than having blonde hair or large feets. However, if you through art/litterature/history you can quickly find out that men and women aren't treated the same. If you to basic biology, you come to some "difference between boys and girls", and may want to discuss which of these difference are biology, and which one are sociology.

Then, it's not like LGBT and intersex individual are novelty, and that kids won't ask question about them (selves). So again something pretty hard to skip. To take medieval history, I don't know how much British kid know about the "acursed king" and the 100 years war, but Edward II being more sexually interested in Lord Despenser than in his wife Isabel the she wolf from France played a big role in these historical sequence of events

Ziggurat ,

Have you checked Nanowar (of steel) which is parodic metal ?

Ziggurat ,

I see Stupeflip, get my upvote
Not sure it'll please the non Francophones but who cares
Stupeflip, le C.R.O.U Un truc qui fracasse la tĆŖte Ć  base de caisse claire qui claque, and the english language ending give me a fucking greek sandwich with fucking onion sounds most french than the french sung part.

And some Banjo metal because yes, they can

What is a good eli5 analogy for GenAI not "knowing" what they say?

I have many conversations with people about Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Copilot. The idea that "it makes convincing sentences, but it doesn't know what it's talking about" is a difficult concept to convey or wrap your head around. Because the sentences are so convincing....

Ziggurat ,

have you played that game where everyone write a subjet and put it on a stack of paper, then everyone puts a verb on a different stack of paper, then everyone put an object on a third stack of paper, and you can even add a place or whatever on the next stack of paper. You end-up with fun sentences like A cat eat Kevin's brain on the beach. It's the kind of stuff (pre-)teen do to have a good laugh.

Chat GPT somehow works the same way, except that instead of having 10 paper in 5 stack, it has millions of paper in thousands of stack and depending on the "context" will choose which stack it draws paper from (To take an ELI5 analogy)

[EU Politic] which "European party" has done the most to prevent a new Qatargate ?

In the context of the European election next month. I am surprised that the Qatargate where several elected official have been charged for receiving Qatari money against service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_corruption_scandal_at_the_European_Parliament ) isn't more discussed by media....

Ziggurat ,

I donā€™t want game night to be a second job or a mental investment. I just want to show up and play something

It's interesting, because actually this part is one of the reason why I don't play D&D. Everytime I try a D&D game, It's quickly think about how to spend your XP wisely because you're impacting a whole progression tree, and if you choose the right feats you'd get a combo or whatever and then the whole combat looks quite intimidating when you start thinking how the party should work to be the most efficient at overcoming an challenge.

While tons of other RPG are more like sit down at the table, have a laid back chat with NPC, and sometimes roll a couple of dice.

I don't say that your point of view or way to play is wrong, but find interesting that your premise to play D&D is my premise to not to play D&D

Ziggurat ,

How long was the exposure ? Feel like you used a long exposure or a high gain, and that it wasn't that nice in real life

Ziggurat ,

Take your time, slow and steady is faster than quick and dirty

Ziggurat ,

People should grow up and take responsibility for their lives.

This is something on I don't agree at all with liberals. When people are manipulated by cult-like technique (or even (social) media optimized to give their brain a fix of dopamine) it's not about their individual responsiblity but the responsiblity of the assholes manipulating them.

Ziggurat ,

With experience, one learn that players will need 5 minutes to destroy 5hours of game prep.
So indeed, sticky notes and bullet points do wonder.

Also, somehow, modern games do wonder at reducing the amount of game prep

Ziggurat ,

Incineration, is the standard way of getting rid of non recyclable waste (a lot of plastic can be recycled) not that green but it allows to produce electricity and hot water which saves some oil

Ziggurat ,

Not even a disability, but kids under 5-6 can't sign by themselves, and will nead at least another decade to come with a real signature.

Think about this 9 year old with a toddler photo on their passport and a parent signature over is

If I sign up on a hot air balloon ride and there is bad weather can I get my money back?

Each of the companies that we have talked to for Hot air balloon rides have said you pay for it in advance, then if there is bad weather, you donā€™t get your money back. You just have to reschedule for another day. We have a friend who had to make many many many trips an hour and a half each way and each time on the way there,...

Ziggurat ,

Have you asked each company in details? It's typically the kind of small business who understands everyone unique case rather than a large corporation full of procedures and lawyers.

I assume they would rather reschedule to not loose the money, but a way to cancel may exists

Ziggurat ,

In general, I like the vibe here, which is more laid back and relax than reddit, with people being in general nicer, less in a karma farming/troll mode.

I have an alt account on fedia (mbin) that I use when my main instance is down, following the same communities. But the more I use it, the nicer I find mbin, I might do a full switch at a point.

However, it's not yet the endless stream of new content we get on reddit and other big social media. Which is great for our mental health but sucks when you look for a fun stuff to do during your commute

France and Germany to develop next-generation battle tank equipped with artificial intelligence and laser technology, billed as a game changer in modern warfare ( www.france24.com )

The defence ministers of France and Germany, Sebastien Lecornu and Boris Pistorius, signed a memorandum of understanding that seals a 50-50 split in the industrial production of an advanced battle tank dubbed the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS)....

Ziggurat ,

Great news, let's hope that both the next generation tank and the next generation plane will work.
Unfortunately, we need some weapon, and I am rather having a sovereign weapon industry than buying them to a foreign power.

I am curious about how much the AI and laser techology are a buzz word rather than a new technology. I can't imagine modern tank not using laser to measure distances or having any form of image/data processing software

"Batch cooking" how do you store meal for the second half of the week ?

I donā€™t do ā€œbatch cookingā€ per se, but often cook something larger on saturday/sunday so I have leftover, either for Monday/thuesday lunch or for when coming back from sport, keeping food 2-3 in the fridge doesnā€™t worry me (Obviously, I am not gonna keep a tartare so long in the frige, and donā€™t even cook meat). Things...

Ziggurat ,

Welcome here,

Note that the goal isnā€™t to build a safe haven for the troll banned from reddit, but a nice and friendly community independent from large corporation/advertissement/data mining algorithm.

Now, if youā€™re not unreasonably trolling, have fun here, the more people the better.

Some c worth following

!imageai

!nostupidquestions

!rpgmemes

And here are some local communities

!europe You can also find a list of National communities in the sidebar of !yurop

The laid back I follow include

!forumlibre (In French)

!dach (In German)

Also, might be worth checking alexandrite.app which provides a modern user interface whatever the instance you use

have fun

P.S. Donā€™t forget the language tag, a feature missing on reddit, not only it helps people filtering out the language they donā€™t speak, but it also make the site more accessible for people using a screen reader

Ziggurat ,

A few years ago already, I started to have more stories about Iā€™ve done that cool stuff, rather than I hope to do that cool stuff

To be fair, I had the honour to spend some time in a south American observatory and it offers a shit ton of ā€œcool storiesā€

SuzyShearer , (edited ) to FoodPorn
@SuzyShearer@mastodon.au avatar

Dinner prepped, in the fridge ready to cook.
Lots of root veggies, cannellini beans, veg stock, onion, Kecap Manis, topped with sliced potatoes.
Made eough to freeze a few meals for later.
@foodporn @foodiverse

Ziggurat ,

I thought it was a Gratin dauphinois when seeing the sliced potatoes. Now I want to make-one

Does middle name on plane ticket gave to match passport?

Iā€™m taking my first international flight this year. Iā€™ve got my passport and bought the plane tickets. However, I noticed that my middle name on the ticket is missing the last 2 letters. I contacted the airline and they said that middle name doesnā€™t have to match passport. I just want to make sure that is correct, I...

Ziggurat ,

Pretty sure there is a character limit on plane ticket. So I wouldnā€™t worry too much. People with 5 ā€œfirst nameā€ canā€™t just put the 5

Ziggurat ,

Not real restaurant, but Iā€™ve seen a lot of ā€œto goā€ food shop offering a small discount if you bring your own box.

Nowadays, I feel like most of the plastic is replaced by paper, I even see some place using biscuit box for sauces.

Is there a good source of info on rental car liability insurance?

I want to know if the car Iā€™m renting comes with liability insurance. I just want to be sure that if I am at fault in an accident, that the other car will be covered. Lets try to ignore any personal car insurance policy and letā€™s ignore collision insurance for now....

Ziggurat ,

Not OP, But does it mean that in the US the car insurance belong to the driver rather than to the car ?

Letā€™s say that I rent a car by myself, and donā€™t have a fancy credit card, travel agent or whatever exeternal insurance covering rental-car. If I donā€™t take the extra insurance package at the front-desk and I have an at fault accident. Do I just need to pay letā€™s say 1500 US$ of copay ? or am I fully liable ?

Just to know for next time I rent a car in the US by myself

Ziggurat ,

Pretty sure you need to touch the fine structure constant to do so. And believe me, touching fundamental constant has a lot of side effects, for example semi conductors properties would change

Is There a Way to Officially Disable a Lemmy Account?

I would like to know if there is an ā€œofficialā€ way to set an account as disabled. For now, I am plan on posting this on Asklemmy, changing my password to some random string that I wonā€™t remember, and then logging out. If Iā€™d like to come back later, thereā€™s a chance of my account being revived through the ā€œforgot...

Ziggurat ,

Pretty sure there is a way to delete an account. Just look in the profile setting.

Is there a more politically and ideologically diverse alternative for Lemmy?

I know the real answer is reddit but I really donā€™t want to go back now that Iā€™ve already grown used to life without it. I was hoping for Lemmy to be a viable substitute but it isnā€™t. I can see how this place is wonderful for the certain type of person but that person is not me. My experience during the past 6+ months has...

Ziggurat ,

What made your experience negative ?

  • Iā€™m on an large instance which doesnā€™t federate with Grad, so I donā€™t see the Right-winger playing to be leftist by supporting right wing dictators
  • Tons of communities donā€™t get that much political beside the respect basic human rights and sometimes comment the news
  • Even with the European election ongoing, I donā€™t see much political discussion on European communities

So may-be try more ā€œcasual/funā€ communties than the political one.

If you use the ā€œlocal feedā€ it may be worth checking another instance. I heard good stuff of Blahaj Lemmy which as no downvote and act mostly as a safe/relax space for queer but is open to non queer people

Ziggurat ,

Internal alpha-therapy. Imagine attaching a radioactive atom to an antibody that would fix to a cancer, then as alpha radiation do a lot of damage, at a very short range destroy the cancer without doing much damage to the rest of the body

See that documentary for example
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DkhSFS0FY4

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

People are actually on BlueSky

There's now a decent measurement of user numbers (https://bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dev/bskycharts.edavis.dev/bsky_users_total.html) ...

They've got about 1.6M MAUs ...
& 0.8M Weekly unique users & 0.340M Daily.

That's not nothing!

Roughly double mastodon and 60% more than the whole fediverse (by MAUs, see fedidb.org).

Bluesky is quite "international" with large Japanese and Brazilian popltns, and there's real attrition happening IMO.

Still, let the protocol wars begin I suppose?

@fediverse

Ziggurat ,

Itā€™s crazy that people would rather migrate to a social media managed by a power hungry capitalist than to a ā€œlibreā€ platform

Ziggurat ,

Half of US Ā«War moviesĀ» Itā€™s not like the US soldier were less evil than the person they fight

Ziggurat ,

Politics. US is ally with Israel but notxwith Iran, US isnā€™t the world police but a country defending their interests which includes their allies.

I somehow hope, that this slow drone attack is also some political theatre like, we shoot some drones to protest our embassy bombing, but we wonā€™t go further

Ziggurat ,

Yup at this point I call that a free checked bag.

Free ? With the new Ryan air policy, itā€™s not free anymore

Ziggurat ,

ike if the option was to pay $100 more and get 2 checked bags, a meal, and more legroom, Iā€™m still not going to do it.

Itā€™s depending whether you need check bags. As soon as you need check bags, suddently, main airlines becomes competitive with cheap ones like Ryanair, especially considering the airport they desserve which tend to be better located (The difference between a Metro ticket for the main one, and a 20 ā‚¬ Shuttle bus to a remote one also impacts the total price

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