BougieBirdie

I did this one campaign which was a hexcrawl where the party was shipwrecked on an island purported to hide the lost city of gold.

The site of the shipwreck was home base, but the party obviously wanted to explore. There were some NPC crewmate survivors, so they would assign them to work on projects while they were exploring. I would always tell them that “some guy” was working on their stuff.

Cut to a few months later when they have a sort of mutiny on their hands. It seems that one crew member in particular was fed up with how much work they had to do while the party went adventuring that they turned the crew against the party.

The mutinous ringleader’s name? Sum Gai

Well as long as Bill says it’s cool, I guess I don’t have to form my own opinion

I have the D&D 3.5 core rulebooks on my shelf in the nerd nook. I know that I’m never going to play 3.5 again, but it’s the system I first got into the hobby with. It would feel wrong to get rid of my personal history of nerdship.

My understanding is that no amount of anti-virus software replaces common sense. As long as you’re not downloading sketchy programs and giving them permission to run, you’re pretty well set.

Some people might tell you that there’s no viruses on Linux, but that isn’t exactly true. Linux has something like 2% of the desktop market, which makes it less attractive to develop malware for - but 2% of a few billion computers is still millions of potential targets. Not to mention that Linux dominates the server market, and arguably that’s where malware is more valuable. To think that there’s no malware targeting Linux is naive.

Many anti-virus suites are effectively malware though. If you decide you do need AV software make sure to do your research before installing any.

Anyway, long story, I don’t personally use an anti-virus, and for your stated uses I’m not sure I’d recommend one.

If you’re mostly using it as a web browser then I would definitely recommend a solid ad blocker. UBlock Origin is free, highly esteemed, and can be installed as an extension to whatever browser you’re currently using.

So does this mean that the “Second Breakfast” contingent of the Fellowship can be stored in one Hobnibble? Seems apt.

Surely you’ve thoroughly thought this through though?

The gazebo is in the right, the rogue shot first

I just shared this with my wife because she’s an artist and hates AI as much as I do.

Apparently she made an account last night.

“Red tape” is a pretty common idiom here. It’s similar to bureaucracy, but it’s more like the useless stuff you have to deal with in order to do something.

Say you want to update your driver’s license and you need to bring in some ID and fill out a form. That’s regular bureaucracy.

If you want to feed the homeless so you have to get a permit for an event, prove your volunteers have food-handling training, fill out forms for your volunteers, notify the police that there will be a public gathering, schedule an inspection of the facility, etc, that’s red tape.

Another way to look at it might be that Bureaucracy describes the system in which offices communicate with each other, and Red Tape are the tasks/forms/whatever you have to complete in order to get what you want approved.

Perfect 5/7 with rice

The plot thickens

Okay, say you’ve got four inner loops (a crime on its own, I know), do you use i, j, k, l or i, j, k, ii?

Ah, well you can definitely build for Android with it then. I haven’t personally, but so far every other platform I’ve built for has just been a few clicks and away you go

I highly recommend Godot for a new developer. I made the switch from Unity and it’s just been a pleasure to work with. I’m actually unlearned a bunch of patterns I had to use with Unity because Godot makes things even easier to access .

I don’t know if it’s got any kind of support for retro systems though

I think nostalgia plays a pretty big factor in retro games. Like, yes, I agree that enshittification marches onwards and the state of the industry today is pretty lame.

Every time I’ve gone back to a retro game I find myself vaguely disappointed. Quality of life has come a long way, and development is iterative so it makes sense that games made twenty years ago are lacking some features that make life easier for the player. Things like fast travel in metroidvanias, or inventory and quest management, or just trying to remember what it was I was supposed to do next in an RPG are often quite lacking. Or at the least, they’re not up to today’s standards.

Survivorship bias plays a pretty big role here too. We remember the good games that stand out from the rest of them, and we forget about the crap. There was shovelware back then too, maybe not to the degree of the modern app stores with F2P games loaded with microtransactions and dark patterns, but they were there too.

Anyway, long story long, the trick in whatever generation you play seems to be to find games that respect your time as a player. I’d also recommend checking out indie games, they’re made with love, and you can find all kinds of retro-styled where you can tell the devs were passionate about games of the era.

Here’s a short list of games I’ve enjoyed that give me that retro SNES feeling:

• Bzzzzzt - Just delightful
• Gravity Circuit - Megaman, but the platforming actually feels good and fast
• Nuclear Blaze - This one has a unique offering where have to put out fires while platforming
• Skull Girls - okay, this one’s a bit older too, but in another comment you said you like Street Fighter so this might be up your alley

Ooh, I didn’t know you could edit videos in Blender. I’ve been looking to learn how to do editing and Blender’s already a little familiar. Thanks!

Where can I get one? Either the t-shirt or a partner that would be interested in one, thanks

I’ve been transported to a strange world and my special skill is AMORTIZATION