The Gaming Den

Oh, no, those were real Muslims. Just as today's Christians are just as Christian as the lunatics who sacked Constantinople in... was it the Fourth Crusade? Whenever. But the nature of the dominant features of the religions have changed. Just as Baghdad was once one of the richest and most advanced ...

Fine, but you've got to take Michael Moore.

This is a No True Scotsmen argument and we know that fallacious. You don't understand the No True Scotsmen fallacy, if you think this is it. You are arguing that Muslims during the golden age of Islam weren't REAL Muslims, and the 99+% of Muslims today aren't REAL Muslims, and only the Jidhadist te...

Everyone always talks about Jesus like he's this chill guy, and they forget that he put eternal hell into the equation. Not quite - not eternal hell, no. IIRC the relevant bit involves a metaphor with a garbage dump where trash was burned, or farmers burning weeds they'd removed from the fields. (T...

As it was the Trump crazies were threatening violence if he lost the election. I don't recall Trump supporters, even the ones arguably mad, threatening violence. In fact, the people blocking major thoroughfares and knocking down elderly ladies post-election are ostensibly Clinton supporters. Projec...

Wikipedia 's definition: Low fantasy stories are set either in the real world or a fictional but rational world, and are contrasted with high fantasy stories, which take place in a completely fictional fantasy world setting with its own set of rules and physical laws. The terms are frequently used ...

I strongly recommend that any American wanting to emigrate because of the recent election take a look at Canada. They're friendly, polite, and perfectly willing to take your money. And they want immigrants!

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out!

To me, it is laughable to refer to Islam as 'medieval' since during that time the Muslim world was a high water mark of culture and education. Two points: 1) Pretty much the entire Western world was in the throes of the Dark Ages. It wouldn't be that hard to be more enlightened than Europe at that ...

Believe me, I sympathize, but reality must be given its due. Even if an insurance company were willing to make absolutely no profit, it still needs to take in more money than it pays out. And that means people have to pay in more then they take out, on average. Somebody has to pay for everything. TA...

Insurance companies were grossly abusing pre-existing conditions as an excuse to not pay. But it's an inherent part of the nature of insurance that it can't cover existing needs, only potential ones. If insurance companies don't have the ability to refuse to pay for conditions that were going to req...

Delusionistan, which seems to be your native country. Look, people five hundred years ago and people today were/are both 'Christians', but their cultures are remarkably incompatible. If there were a country today that was populated by the attitudes and behaviors considered normal in Christendom half...

your insistence that things are fixed in other books rapidly erodes any value this has as a rules-light. Oh, I'm not insisting things are fixed at all. But they *are* changed. I did think that having substantial rules alterations presented so rapidly doesn't speak well for the amount of thought tha...

Mage Armor was one of the things changed in the "From the Imperial Library" supplement, which is very, very long compared to "The Art of War".

A few very rich people and corporations calling the shots, with a vast horde of poor people who'll do anything to keep their awful jobs? And who will vote for whoever promises not to reduce their benefits? What exactly do you think 'oligarchy' means, other than 'rule of the few', usually the richest...

Voting for the oligarchs wearing Democrat hats, instead of the oligarchs wearing the Republican hats, is going to 'change' what exactly?

Oh, I'm reasonably certain the numbers given for certain monster stats are in error. I would also note that having a Mage score of zero puts that character in the same category as the various animals statted up. Yeah, they're gonna be a beast in combat... but also, outside of combat. But yeah, havin...

Small towns aren't weird disconnected bubbles that interact with city culture like its some sort of alien virus. That time passed long ago, people are plugged in, get everything and can get in their damn cars and commute just like everyone else. I don't think the article was saying that non-city pe...

Oh, I found it thoughtful as well.

Unlike the successive blog post, which I find absolutely hilarious.

I am most especially interested in learning how combats actually work. I can try playtesting with my groups, but I'd like to be able to offer them a good system (or a good tweaking of a mediocre system) right off the bat.

Here's an interesting Cracked article about why Trump support was so much greater than expected: How Half of America Lost Its F*cking Mind

I found it entertaining.

It's very, very tempting to label your opponents based on their nuttiest and most unappealing fringes. It's not very realistic or fair, though. Or practical, since then you can't address or evaluate the actual movement.

I stumbled across Warrior, Rogue, and Mage some time ago, and I was intrigued. I mostly liked what I saw, but wondered how effectively it could be tweaked to better represent my current gaming obsessions. Searching here has shown only a few references, and one person who seems to have played it a bi...

Oh man, imagine if the Bible were as easy for some random nutcase to add information to as Wikipedia is... Y'know, Wikipedia was originally intended to demonstrate that such an encyclopedia could work without a central organizing group of editors who would decide which contributions were worthy and ...

Abortion hurts no one. Hell, if we were truly dispassionate enough to face facts, we would probably condone killing newborns, because they're only human in a physiological sense. Our "protect the baby!" instincts are too strong for most people to be honest, though. It's not something I'm t...

virgil wrote:I've seen a number of people try to soften the blow by going on about checks and balances or the limits of the office.

Since both Dubya and Obama spent a lot of time and effort weakening the limits on and increasing the powers of the Executive, I wouldn't be too reassured.