Pat Leahy is the heart of my faith in the Senate. He was a friend of my father. His son and I crossed paths at random points. He sponsored me in the Senate page program, I worked for him as an intern, later a staffer. He's a huge nerd and the biggest Batman fan you know.
Before he chaired the Judiciary committee, he chaired the Agriculture Committee, and that seems like kind of a throwaway unless you know a bit about agri-politcs, and then you realize that a chairman who's not from a huge midwestern farm state is SUPER WEIRD.
And it *was*. Because while Vermont has plenty of farms and farmers, it's not an agribusiness state, and Leahy didn't have an Agribusiness agenda. See, the agriculture committee is also the nutrition & forestry committee.
And Leahy (I can't honestly call him "Pat", though he'd probably insist I do so) stepped into this seat that was traditionally more or less a voice for monsanto and company and said, "You know what's broken? Food Stamps."
Things like WIC and a ton of other reforms got pushed through under his watch because he had the Leverage of someone who cared to do the right thing, and was not beholden to the usual structure.
He moved onto Judiciary when Biden vacated the seat for Foreign Affairs. This was good timing because this was the 90s, and this whole Internet thing? Most of it fell under the auspices of the Judiciary committee.
Most senators are very smart people, but can barely handle their own email. Leahy was an exception - he's got a genuine interest in technology and its implications, and that served as a powerfully effective smell test on the committee.
I had forgotten until last week that in a Democratic senate, he would be President Pro Tempore. It seemed impossible that this guy, who spent one election campaigning *alongside* the GOP Candidate, had not retired. I was proud as all hell.
To this day, I'm intimately familiar with his signature. Congressional offices do fake signatures, but they're really *nice* fake signatures. They use a big carved piece of wood and an arm to move an actual pen in the right movements. As an Intern, you use it a lot.
So I'm watching this news and I'm hoping like hell. This is a friend, and I am not ready for this one right now.
Local news is reporting he's gone home, so *whew*.
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Nerdthing: Whatever your opinion of Gamestop redditors, I feel it's worth pointing out that they were very nearly the definition of a self-organizing team.
Worth noting in case you think that self organizing teams can't be effective. They obviously can - what's stopping yours?
So, I'm going to answer my question for you. The answer is (probably) that your teams are not as interested in solving your works problem as the redditors were in screwing with hedge funds.
Motivation and focus make for real barriers to teams self organizing. There needs to be a certain amount of clarity, buy in and enthusiasm for things to work. (There also needs to be structural space for it, but that's a separate problem)
Never got around to writing up the Little Dude's Birthday game, and dunno if I will, but since the topic of introducing players to RPGs via D&D is in the air, I figured I should share the packet I sent the players, if only to show my take on it.
I think the Mirrorblade (Hexblade Warlock) is kind of my favorite, and on some level it's a good example of how cool I think D&D characters *should* be.
In retrospect, the two big changes I would have made: 1) More multiple choice questions 2) Added color icons (that match the dice) whenever I refer to dice.
Re-mentioning: @affinitybyserif has a 50% off deal going at the moment, which means Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher are available for something like 25 bucks each. If you are an RPG publisher, you should at least look at this. affinity.serif.com/en-us/
These applications are functionally comparable to Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, and not in a "watered down knock off" sort of way, but in a "fully functional and super powerful" sort of way, but do not require a subscription.
They're not perfect. They're power apps, so there is a learning curve. And there are definitely benefits of buying into the adobesphere which you are passing up (especially on the photoshop side) but they are a reasonable, solid alternative, and I personally use them a lot.
This is a good thread, and I am not criticizing it in saying my experience is a bit different, in large part because I'm aware my experience is the anomalous one. :)
That said, there are reasons for this: some are good, some aren't, and by their nature they point to alternatives
The two most critical points of this are as follows:
* This problem mirrors fiction
* There is a structural information load issue at work
Let's dive in.
Fictional protagonists are usually reactive. Antagonists (villains!) drive events and push for change, and protagonists stop them. This is not universally true, but it's so common as so be expected. It's one of the reasons playing villains is fun for reasons other than EEEVIL.
Strikes me that a great political issue in a cyberpunk setting is the "Right to patch". If you have cyberware installed in your body, are you entitled to security updates? If no, then you're signing up for extortion, which seems like it would make the obvious answer "no", but!
That's evil you could explain to a 5 year old, and megacorps are at least a little sophisticated. They get your money by making you WANT to spend it, and conceding on this gives the government (such as it is) a "win", which is great optics.
And, critically, the details are in the fine print. Yes, security and stability patches are mandatory for a "reasonable period" after release. Which means that rather than nickel and diming you with service fees on your heart, they mandate a replacement when it goes EOL.
If you make something that is good and interesting, then there MUST be people who it is NOT for. If you strive to understand WHY this is so, and celebrate it (rather than resent it) it makes *every* game better.
PBTA is not as intuitive to me as Fate (surprise), but because I recognize that's a matter of taste, not quality, that lets me analyze several things.
Top of head: 1) What works well in PBTA. Can I learn from that? 2) What gaps does PBTA have? Can I fill those? 3) What can I learn from how PBTA presents information? 4) What in PBTA *excites* people? Do i think it's unique? 4) Are there things I could do for fans of both?