The Gaming Den

I say play. Even if the experience sucks, you can always tell stories about that group of losers who actually tried to play Alternity. Seriously, I never analyzed the game in detail, because when it came out, I was smack in the middle of my hardcore "roleplaying" phase and didn't know how ...

Put all that kind of stuff first, in a very efficient chapter, then go for the math and details and crap. Leave out all the BS about world flavor text - it just gets in the way of being creative. I agree. I've never bought a White Wolf book because I got tired of flipping through the pages trying t...

So basically, finding stuff out is a function of what the GM gives you or what you decide you want to know, while whether you die horribly due to poor health or lousy driving is random. It sounds like an interesting concept, but I can see a potential problem. Depending on how big the pools are and h...

The Chicago School Hurts My Mind. -Username17 Holy fuck, that guy sounds like he's talking about Intelligent Design. When it comes to the most important questions, he throws his arms up and says 'we couldn't possibly know that'. Wow, there's more circular logic, ad hominems and double-standards in ...

I like the book because it is the only book I have read that conveys an atmosphere of intrigue, of plans within plans. As a bonus the world is consistent within itself - that is rare by itself. Not really, I mean it always upset me that in one of the books ... I really like the original book, but t...

But saying that playing a low-powered character can still be an interesting experience? I still hear that argument over at RPG.net all the time. Well, technically they're correct, since "interesting" is in the eye of the beholder and doesn't necessarily mean "effective." But def...

I suspect it's mostly legacy. Dune's nothing special, and in fact looks cheesy and dated from a modern perspective, but it was probably groundbreaking compared to what else was being published in 1965. I'm pretty sure most 60s sci-fi didn't create the kind of complete, sophisticated portrait of envi...

IIRC, there were two optional XP for treasure rules in 2e. One was for the whole party, while the other was only for rogues (class group that consisted of thieves and bards).

I'm with Lago here. I thought mongol archers were just a subset of a general problem with archers being overpowered in 4e because of all those slow monsters without range attacks. Wasn't that supposed to be one of the reasons archer rangers own everything (in addition to the fact that they can take ...

I heard an interesting joke on Morning Edition the other day or rather a saying, “Micro Economists get the details wrong and Macro Economists get things in general wrong.” Physiology is a major factor in the decisions people take on an everyday basis and part of that physiology includes filtering o...

The author is talking about historical economic theory. Risk aversion was a hole in economic theory. True fact. And now it isn't. Which means the author is giving examples which directly contradict his stated hypothesis of "incremental progress can't happen in Economics". So way to go. Hi...

Oops, sorry. Both names start with M and I'd read the fighter hate thread right before this one. The post has been corrected.

The first thing I thought of when Mauver posted his RPS example was the Same Game test. Basically, in RPS you pick one of three objects to represent you, and your opponent can be one of the same three objects. Each object beats one of the two others 100% of the time, loses to one of the others 100% ...

MGuy: The problem with your idea is that you can only balance the different aspects against each other if you know that they'll all get roughly equal playing time in the campaign. Unfortunately, D&D is supposed to support a wide variety of playstyles, with the default setup ("We raid dunge...

Part II is up.

This one deals with the Allais paradox and why (according to the author) economic paradigms are particularly resistant to incremental change.

July 14. My birthday's a national holiday in France.

Evo biology is usually just a way to sell 'just-so' stories 'proving' that girls like pink or other social constructs which break all to hell when you actually bring in examples from historical and isolated societies. -Crissa I've never really seen it used to prove social constructs. Usually to hel...

I just came across this , the first in a promised series of blog posts by an evolutionary biologist on whether the assumptions of economics are compatible with evolutionary theory as we know it. Given how much Denners like to discuss social sciences vs. hard science, I figured the series might gener...

So wait, the AGW people are using an e-mail pointing to an e-mail debate as evidence that there's something nefarious about the science czar? I mean, at least some of the other e-mails kind of sound incriminating. Apparently, they're seizing on something about Holdren's "attitude" to prove...

Even though The Beatles predate Iron Butterfly, Ringo recorded that drum solo in 2008. Granted, I have no idea when the first time he did it in concert was (if Ringo ever actually did a drum solo in a Beatles concert).

Cynic wrote:
See one of Bonham's solos compared to one of Ringo Starr's solos.

Is it just me, or was Ringo basically copying the drum solo from "In-Na-Ga-Da-Da-Vida"?

I was a Niftyite who came over when fbmf posted a link over there. I've been here on and off since, taking breaks when life or school projects get in the way, or when I get burned out on strident game design and political discussion. Like, for example, the last couple of months.

The idea is supposed to be that the lowest level is for 17-year-olds who have sex with fifteen year old girlfriends <snip> How to stop someone from fucking your sexy, virginal daughter? Well, the libruls made it a bad thing for you to shoot them, but we got the next best thing. Put them on the SEX ...

One problem is that, even in places where the law takes a more graduated approach, judicial discretion often doesn't. For example, in Ohio, we have three levels of sex offender, each with different restrictions. The idea is supposed to be that the lowest level is for 17-year-olds who have sex with f...

Speaking of which, I saw a story about how Georgia's sex offender restrictions are so severe that there's an actual camp in the woods where sex offenders stay if they can't find a place that isn't within 1000 feet of a school, church, park, children, etc. And people are pointing out that this basic...