Hell, be an rpg hero and make it a lending library to your actively playing associates.

The only parts of my collection that I don’t lend out are the absurdly difficult to replace box kits. Even then, I’ll make copies of the material. My kid’s d&d group plays 5e, but the DM has borrowed some of my 3.x books for ideas, and has (with full supervision because I’m a little protective) had access to my spelljammer box (before they redid it).

Besides, I may end up running a game again. Most of my regular players have expressed interest, and it’s only scheduling that keeps it from happening. Shit, I might even do a game with the original rule materials some day, the way I used to do ad&d short games (a few months of a story, or breaking out a module) when we were playing 3.x

Coffee shops go back pretty far tbh.

That being said, it’s only anachronistic if your setting is this world. No reason why the equivalent of an inn wouldn’t be serving a stimulant beverage of some kind.

Yeah, even the big names tend to not care much as long as nobody else is profiting off of their work. Agents and publishers, they tend to get right snippy about piracy lol.

Mind you, there is a segment of working authors that do suffer in their ability to go from a part time, almost hobbyist situation into a proper career of it. They tend to see the lack of sales as more of a problem, but they tend to be younger and didn’t ever see how impossible breaking in to traditional publishing was. It’s easy to look at your self published income and think “oh, if people had to buy these, I’d be making a living at this instead of it being barely enough to cover expenses for writing”. But, most of the time, back before self publishing was actually a valid and useful route, they wouldn’t have been selling anything, they’d be hoping for an agent to get their first sale for them.

And I’ll never tell anyone that they can’t profit from their own ideas and labor, and expect anyone consuming it to pay up. Authors that object, that’s fine by me (and I actually don’t pirate their stuff). But like you said, most writers would rather someone read and enjoy for free rather than not read at all.

As a published (if hilariously unsuccessful) author; no, no it isn’t.

Gods, I hate those. I won’t watch anything that does it

Man, I wish I could afford their rates. They’re just a little bit higher than I can justify compared to other options for a given service.

Plenty. Music and books in particular. I’m usually behind on making legit buys, but I treat piracy partially like a library where I can try before I buy.

That isn’t saying I buy everything I pirate, I don’t. But if I like it enough to keep the files, I’ll wait until I find a good sale and eventually get a legit copy in some format.

I also do it in reverse, where I’ll buy something, but pirate a digital copy when it’s more convenient. That’s typically for paper books and music on vinyl. Sometimes I’ll even pirate a copy of a CD if I’m not up to dealing with the ripping (disability means I don’t always have stamina for everything, so stuff like ripping a cd is low priority).

Really?

It’s dumb as fuck.

Hate it if we want (and I have major problems with how young phones and similar devices become glued to kids), but they’re here to stay. They’re a part of modern life, and trying to completely ban them is the most idiotic waste of time and resources possible.

You gotta find a way to limit use in a consistent and evenly applied way so that parents and school staff are all on the same page. Then you just keep enforcing the rules amd explaining them over and over. Eventually, it becomes a manageable annoyance instead of the chaos it currently is

Google owns Rcs. Nobody else is capable of doing what they’re doing with it, and they don’t let anyone else play.

No third party apps, no way to choose other implementations.

Nobody really gives a fuck about the standard itself being “open” if there’s no ability for an end user to have any choice is the matter. It’s Google or GTFO.

Fuck rcs until Google opens it up.

Poweramp

The way it handles its own audio engine is pretty much the best available.

Jfc, I love this.

Nah, fudging is slightly different.

Fudging is saying “the roll was 19” when it was actually 18, and 18 was a fail. That’s a form of lie.

Straight up saying that the roll is being ignored totally, or that the person should roll again isn’t fudging because it’s open and honest.

Legit, I don’t fudge rolls because it’s not fun for me.

If a roll would fuck up the session/adventure/campaign, I just straight up tell the players I’m making a call and override the results. It doesn’t happen often, and it’s really only when rng just screws things, like when you get multiple nat 1s in a session, way out of line with what makes sense without some kind of gymnastics to explain things in game.

Because it takes longer to roll up a new one than a table really needs as an interruption.

Purely practical imo. You don’t want things derailed that early. Later on, a death can be worked with, made part of a story. In the first three sessions? It’s just a pain in the ass

Laddie, ye betterrrrr develop ain, afore ye git strung up by yer playerrrrrs.

Boobs everywhere!

Just audio, or miked?

I found some by klim that have been very durable so far. Something like five years and no issues. Well built, come with their own case. Wired buds. Sound can be a bit muddy for music, but not unbearable. In calls, they’re great.

Bluetooth wise, check out tozo. They do respectable buds on a budget. Not the best sound, but acceptable, and their mics pick up decently. Battery life is decent.

Back to wired, if you can find a sale, the tin t2 model is damn good sound for the price range. You usually have to be patient to get the 50 price point, or go used. But they really do sound great on a phone with a decent DAC. But that’s sound only, no mic.

That’s easy. The people profiting from it are pushing it hard.