I personally find DND unsatisfying for many reasons (little to no degree of success, static magic system that encourages hoarding, the primary defense is all or nothing avoidance, very coarse progression, some character concepts are simply not representable, etc)
But what is even more annoying than that is when players respond with "but you can just change the rules!". I know! That's true of any pen and paper game! It's not some unique property of DND. But sometimes I don't want to do the work of designing a system, and I almost never want to play some stranger's pre-alpha homebrew.
I'd rather spend N minutes reading a list of book recommendations than 5*N minutes watching a video. Presumably the target audience for books is literate.
Someone speaking another language makes them afraid (maybe they're talking about me) or feel bad (I only know one language am I stupid?). Getting angry at the other person is easier on the ego than healthier options.
I used nWoD for fantasy games. The core dice pool system works pretty well, and few things are tightly coupled to any setting in particular.
I mostly don't like d20, so when someone tells me they're doing a game about secret vampire societies in it, I'm a lot more disappointed than if they ported a system I like or am neutral on. Also 5th edition in particular makes a lot of assumptions about how things work.
I dunno man. I've had a lot of conversations with players that go like "do you think your character is the first to come up with this hijink? If it works, why doesn't the entire setting revolve about this infinite damage trick you're trying to sell me?"
Like, if it was as easy as casting Charm Person on the king to become the new ruler, other people would already be doing that. Therefore, there must be reasons why it doesn't work.
Still, the costs for defendants, even if ultimately exonerated, have been enormous, with many having their mugshots blasted by the government and some forced to languish in jail or have criminal charges hang over them for weeks and months
Fundamental flaw in the legal system right there.
In several high-profile cases, the prosecutions fell apart because they relied on statements by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers that had no supporting evidence or in some instances were proven by video footage to be blatantly false.
Some people are really loathe to do any self reflection or assessment. I gather their sense of self and worth is very fragile, and looking too hard might make it collapse.
Like, some people you could say "Eating meat is bad for these reasons" and they'll just lash out. Not enough emotional HP to tank the hit.
I'm not rich to the point of no longer needing to labor, but I did hit the social security cap one year. I was pissed when I learned why my take home jumped up. I would have rather kept paying.
It's selfish to want to keep a little more of your vast wealth like you describe. That's cartoon villainy.
Right. Cognitive dissonance. We all suffer it sometimes. I guess it takes uncommon courage and clarity to work through it. Most people would rather do the least effort to preserve their sense of being a good person.
Being sexist is bad
They are good
They don't like this show because it has a woman lead
That's sexist
But they're good
Can't change "sexism is bad". Can't change "they are good". Only thing left to change is the reason they don't like the show. Easy-peasy.
It's kind of insane to me that there's an annual cap on social security payments. If your salary is high enough, you stop paying into it partway through the year. That's ass-backwards. You shouldn't pay anything for the first chunk of money, and then pay more as you make more.
A good post.
I personally find DND unsatisfying for many reasons (little to no degree of success, static magic system that encourages hoarding, the primary defense is all or nothing avoidance, very coarse progression, some character concepts are simply not representable, etc)
But what is even more annoying than that is when players respond with "but you can just change the rules!". I know! That's true of any pen and paper game! It's not some unique property of DND. But sometimes I don't want to do the work of designing a system, and I almost never want to play some stranger's pre-alpha homebrew.
I'd rather spend N minutes reading a list of book recommendations than 5*N minutes watching a video. Presumably the target audience for books is literate.
I'm tired of video.
On the one hand, this might help fence sitters that are like "there's no content there".
On the other, I just don't personally care for a stream of random images like Instagram et al do.
There's something off about a video about books.
It's not "retire and live a life of luxury" money, at least in many parts of the world.
It's a lot of money in terms of paying down debt and covering rent for a while, though.
Poor emotional regulation.
Someone speaking another language makes them afraid (maybe they're talking about me) or feel bad (I only know one language am I stupid?). Getting angry at the other person is easier on the ego than healthier options.
I used nWoD for fantasy games. The core dice pool system works pretty well, and few things are tightly coupled to any setting in particular.
I mostly don't like d20, so when someone tells me they're doing a game about secret vampire societies in it, I'm a lot more disappointed than if they ported a system I like or am neutral on. Also 5th edition in particular makes a lot of assumptions about how things work.
Isn't that what people were calling it anyway? Well that's nice I guess.
I dunno man. I've had a lot of conversations with players that go like "do you think your character is the first to come up with this hijink? If it works, why doesn't the entire setting revolve about this infinite damage trick you're trying to sell me?"
Like, if it was as easy as casting Charm Person on the king to become the new ruler, other people would already be doing that. Therefore, there must be reasons why it doesn't work.
My parents are difficult. Not the worst people and not monsters, but at many times unpleasant.
Plus it was a house in the suburbs. Not ideal for socializing or culture.
And lastly, living with parents in the suburbs would be huge negatives for dating.
Fundamental flaw in the legal system right there.
Prosecute the liars. Ruin their lives instead.
All it takes is one cop to be like "he was resisting arrest and I feared for my life so I had to shoot him 17 times in the back".
Yep.
Management is often out of touch and full of shit
Sounds like a good start
I don't like to think of people as immutably good or bad, but I get what you meant.
There's a bunch of factors.
So, someone who lies, is cruel, doesn't care about anyone else, and leaves the world a mess is being a pretty bad person.
Someone who just keeps their head down, goes to work, and is polite to people they meet is kind of middling.
I don't think that's necessarily a good reason for the cap to exist. I expect it's a compromise to get rich people and idiots on board.
The Oatmeal did a comic worth reading about this: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
Some people are really loathe to do any self reflection or assessment. I gather their sense of self and worth is very fragile, and looking too hard might make it collapse.
Like, some people you could say "Eating meat is bad for these reasons" and they'll just lash out. Not enough emotional HP to tank the hit.
I'm not rich to the point of no longer needing to labor, but I did hit the social security cap one year. I was pissed when I learned why my take home jumped up. I would have rather kept paying.
It's selfish to want to keep a little more of your vast wealth like you describe. That's cartoon villainy.
Right. Cognitive dissonance. We all suffer it sometimes. I guess it takes uncommon courage and clarity to work through it. Most people would rather do the least effort to preserve their sense of being a good person.
Being sexist is bad
They are good
They don't like this show because it has a woman lead
That's sexist
But they're good
Can't change "sexism is bad". Can't change "they are good". Only thing left to change is the reason they don't like the show. Easy-peasy.
It's kind of insane to me that there's an annual cap on social security payments. If your salary is high enough, you stop paying into it partway through the year. That's ass-backwards. You shouldn't pay anything for the first chunk of money, and then pay more as you make more.