saddestcatever (u/saddestcatever)

saddestcatever commented on LAN Party game caching made easy lancache.net/... · Posted by u/lobo_tuerto

Interesting approach. For my LAN bachelor party I just used Dropbox. But I was into retro games at the time, so downloading wasn't the issue. Our trouble was getting everyone the same games and all the fiddly settings needed. Dropbox sync (and pause!) was a decent way to help make on the fly tweaks.

Of course modern games don't run as portably. Spewing configs everywhere.

Most recently for a work social I resorted to a Google Drive share and bash scripts to get everything aligned. Still, played old games though; Doom and some crazy mods over Zandorum.

saddestcatever · 2 years ago

Sounds like fun!

Dropbox also has LAN sync if you're all on the same "team" account. Works wonders between local computers.

I love seeing targeted solutions like the one posted by OP, but I can't shake the feeling that the application of distribution game files is only the surface of it's applicability.

saddestcatever commented on Smartphones wiped out 97% of the compact camera market asia.nikkei.com/Business/... · Posted by u/joos3

mstaoru · 3 years ago

One word - bokeh.

You can get a Fuji X-E4 + XC 35mm f/2 for ~US$1000 new, and I'm yet to see a phone camera that can shoot something like this https://img.photographyblog.com/reviews/fujifilm_xc_35mm_f2/... - it's an enjoyable setup that will continue being ahead of any flagship phones for years to come. Not to mention that it's a hell of a rabbit hole and a great hobby.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

There's a certain irony that the primary feature separating smart phone cameras and traditional cameras is the ability to purposefully make "blurry photographs".

saddestcatever commented on How to Get into Tabletop RPGs youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ntd... · Posted by u/doener

ra120271 · 3 years ago

Any thoughts and recommendations on how best to introduce my 5 year old boy to ttrpg? Recommendations on playing tips, games, narratives that engage and how to progress as he gets older?

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

Recommendation: Start with the story and narrative elements. You can abstract away all the rules, and math as need be, and re-introduce them over time.

saddestcatever commented on How to Get into Tabletop RPGs youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ntd... · Posted by u/doener

ZoomZoomZoom · 3 years ago

In a true manifestation of synchronicity, I've been looking into different RPG systems to get back into playing after a long hiatus.

Having experience in PF1 and D&D, I've tried to look into alternative systems, which can be characterized as "rules light" to ease newbies' pickup stress. I was surprised by the sheer quantity of options, leading to a complete analysis paralysis. Not only there's a plethora of OSR (old-school renaissance) systems regurgitating old D&D, but also games with new and interesting mechanics.

My preliminary findings:

• Dungeon Crawl Classics: + great style + plenty of contents + lots of random tables + high-effort magic with consequences + close OSR compatibility - (huge con) weird dice

• Tiny Dungeon / Advanced Tiny Dungeon: + simple and logical mechanics (based around 2d6 -/+ 1d6 for [dis]advantage) + concise rules - bland magic - magic almost requires buying additional book (micronomicon) - not compatible with OSR/D20 contents without conversions - not many adventures/settings to choose from

• Barbarians of Lemuria: + simple system - not generic enough (strong Sword&Sorcery flavour) - not much content available

• ICRPG: + very rules light + great DM advice section of the book - disputable mechanics decisions which not all players might be on board with - low compatibility with classic contents - included setting[s] don't look flexible enough for different styles of play

• EZD6: +/- basic mechanics on the verge of being limiting +/- strong reliance on metagame mechanics - relies on DM being really skilled - low classic contents compatibility

• Microlite and variations: + super light and low crunch + great compatibility - mechanics break down with progression - may be too simple for inexperienced players/DMs

• Low Fantasy RPG: + nice mechanics - not exactly rules light

• Worlds Without Number: + free + decent compatibility with OSR/D20 content + huge set of DM tools + generic enough for different styles/settings - not rules light

• Basic Fantasy: + free + great OSR variation - Not the best presentation of the rules (lots of jumping around the book)

Other contestants: Swords & Wizards, Castles & Crusades, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, World of Dungeons

This is just scratching the surface and needs to be put into a big table of comparison to be at least minimally useful. It would be nice to crowdsource this comparison in some wiki.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

What are your thoughts on Dungeon World (PbtA)? For rules-lite, classic D&D-themes, and easy for newbies, I've found it to be a good choice for my group.

saddestcatever commented on How to Get into Tabletop RPGs youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ntd... · Posted by u/doener

ankaAr · 3 years ago

I bought DW by mistake and was the best mistake I took buying TTRPG books. Just print the character sheet and play.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

Coming from a long background in D&D 3.5/5e/etc TTRPGs, Dungeon World and thus the PbtA systems feel like a breath of fresh air! Especially for a rules-lite, narrative-first game.

However, I will admit... The actual Dungeon World book is pretty bad. Great rules, great player sheets / printables, rather poor book as TTRPG books go.

saddestcatever commented on Mundane chores are all the rage in gaming economist.com/culture/202... · Posted by u/nathan_phoenix

kmlx · 3 years ago

i first had this idea more than a decade ago: a way to translate gaming tasks into something productive on the other end of the pipe. the gamer doesn't realise, and the company actually solves issues by just letting the gamer play the game.

in the non-gaming world, i think the closest mass market idea has been google's captcha which actually trains an AI in the background. that's very naive and very simple, and definitely not a game, but imagine something similar with puzzles (i.e. Witness, the game, is all about puzzles. why not replace those puzzles with puzzles from real life that actually need solving).

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

If you haven't read Ender's Game, I highly recommend it based on this topic.

I think the tricky part is - if it's an unsolved problem, how does the game know when a task is complete? Feedback loops are a core element of game design, and part of the reason tedious tasks can be satisfying, but unless it's directly manual labor, I'm unsure how to create a proper feedback loop

saddestcatever commented on Turo Requires a Driver's License Number and Credit Card to Show Full Price · Posted by u/tr3ntg

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

It's an interesting dark pattern...

I understand when products are compared directly: Uber vs. Lyft, Uber Eats vs. Grubhub, etc. Often consumers are looking at the exact same product and purely deciding based on price. I can see what a company would add that dark pattern to squeeze every dollar they can get.

AirBnb, Turo? I don't get it, are folks comparing the purchases directly to "other" products?

saddestcatever commented on FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign ftc.gov/news-events/news/... · Posted by u/Kesseki

glenstein · 3 years ago

I completely agree that politicians are not cheap at all. The reality is that so much of the money that's invested in influencing politicians is through means other than campaign contributions.

It's through season tickets to the network of friends that know the politician, it's through donations to the university that gets their child into college, it's through pacs and issue groups, it's through lining up and bundling donors to max out their individual donations to a politician's preferred presidential candidate, it's through flying them out to special events, it's through hiring their best friend, it's through investing in their brother in law's new business, it's through buying things at their husband or wife's charity auction, it's through arranging a job for them after they retire from politics, it's through finding them a buyer for their investment property, it's through an entire network of investments one or two degrees removed from the politician.

The only sliver of that that people typically cite is the amount directly spent on campaign contributions which (1) mistakenly makes it seem like politicians are cheap and (2) is underwhelming, to people who cite those numbers sincerely believing that that's the only economic dimension to political influence.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

True! Great point that there are very, very many other ways that they are "compensated" besides direct $$$ donations. Thank you for noting that.

saddestcatever commented on FTC sues Intuit for its deceptive TurboTax “free” filing campaign ftc.gov/news-events/news/... · Posted by u/Kesseki

itslennysfault · 3 years ago

.... and just to be completely clear, this is only the way it is because of HUGE lobbying spends by Intuit.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

IMO: The mind blowing element, is that in the grand scheme of things It's not actually that much money.

I'm not sure if anyone knows the true amount, but estimates put the number spent on lobbying around a few million dollars. Opensecrets.org estimated ~$3.2m lobbying in 2021.

https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary...

For a company that makes $2 BILLION dollars a year, the amount they actually spend lobbying and otherwise influencing governments is shockingly small.

saddestcatever commented on Apple announces 27-inch 5K Studio Display apple.com/studio-display/... · Posted by u/sparshgupta

james-redwood · 3 years ago

I hate this trend in ‘ultra modern’ websites with the infinite scroll pulling you through some sort of animation. The website is near unusable as a result.

saddestcatever · 3 years ago

I'm sitting here on a 2015 Macbook Pro and the site barely runs :P