Zompist Bboard Again

Many thanks, I appreciate it.

I 100% forgot I had asked the question here, I'm so sorry. (I delved back into the posted materials and sorted it to at least my rough satisfaction.)

Hey, Mark. I remember seeing your art of a Red Cabal member somewhere, but I can't remember where. I'd like to request your permission to use it in a Roll20 campaign I'm running right now (I remember the art vividly, and it's exactly how I'd picture the Masked Marquis, leader of the Brotherhood of S...

The second version of the Culture Test appears here . I've tried to make the society's internal conflicts a bit more evident from the "man in the street" perspective. As Spanish goes: its profile remains constant, though details of the demographics may adjust (aside from Cuba's adjusted st...

... just some guideposts and suggestions. I want to use Dhekhnami as a kind of scaffolfing for an Orcish lanuage in a Pathfinder 2e game. The text I want to translate is this: For every drop of blood your weapon has shed Gorum praises and thanks you Blood for Gorum! Blood for Gorum! For every drop o...

So there you go: Want to be rich? Unify the people. What's the one thing everyone can agree on is a good thing? Killing Muslims, naturally. Just to be clear, not Muslims like Daniel Haqiqatjou. The police rape and kill peaceful protesters as the "geniuses" cheer on. One really awful thing...

There seem to be way too many people in the world - including some whom I know in real life - who basically don't seem to care if they're far left or far right as long as they get to "stick it" to "the establishment". This is the specific faction I had in mind, for sure. I remem...

I see the far left is taking up trolling too these days... I don't think it's very useful, myself, though to each their own I guess. Not sure I would describe them as "left," b/c they're almost always fascist-adjacent and more concerned with assailing "liberals" than anything el...

I'd agree with most of your paragraph, but put it the other way around: the theme is unexpectedly modern. Rather than exalting heroism, Gilgamesh questions it: basically the king spends his time doing stupid things that everyone tries to dissuade him from. He only succeeds in pissing off the gods, ...

But in India, these conspiracies have seized power and show no sign of dying down. Ah. I see what you mean, in that case. The themes in the Epic of Gilgamesh are too simple to make for a good story. I find them refreshing in their authenticity: The loss of a friend is tragic, kings want to live for...

They of course can try to pretend they're being persecuted like the Jews of Nazi Germany (and frequently do), but since that is a lie, nobody else needs to give it credence at all. It's not that I disagree with you. The only problem is that it's almost like only a minority either cares about the tr...

You forget that the right has a tendency to be easily offended by anything that perturbs any of their culture war bugbears? No, I don't forget at all. It's just that since the things that offend them are mostly harmless in reality, their offense is -- or should be -- less of a priority to others. T...

To me, people do not have an intrinsic right to not be offended in and of itself. The relevant question is whether the subject of the offense is noteworthy and action-worthy. "Just don't interact with what offends you" is worthless advice to targets of anti-Semitism and other forms of rac...

I believe at some point Twitter also changed the algorithm, as one way or another, the most offensive content started being promoted more and more. Why is far-right content called "offensive" when basic justice offends the moral majority more than anyone has ever been offended by anything...

I did start up a Mastodon account, but I'm not sure of sticking around on an instance I basically chose at random I get that, but from what I understand it's easy to change instances, and your followers (but not your posts) come with. So you should follow me so I can follow you back. Since I haven'...

Incidentally, the topic of Latinx immigration really caught my interest out of this. It led me to this site . I'm going to digest it a bit before I really comment, but thanks to Mark for raising the question. It will be important to the overall flavor of the setting, especially since the crucial tim...

I was not loving Twitter for a long time before Musk's advent. I barely use my Twitter account, although I have to agree with Mark's summary in that it's been particularly invaluable in following current events like the war in Ukraine. That value is about to drop sharply, I think. I don't know that ...

OK, but Cuban origin only accounts about 26% of Florida's Latines. If Palmera's as prosperous as the US, I think it'd attract a lot of Latin Americans (and probably give you a number of headaches). It's a fair question. The Latinx population in 1983 is about 4.5% of the national total and most of i...

Many thanks for the comments! Oh, something I'd like to see more: what do Palmeys think of Americans, of Brits, of Jamaicans, of Latin Americans? That's a really good idea. I'll incorporate that, I think. In a few places I think you slip into exposition mode rather than culture test mode. The point ...

I originally posted this in the wrong forum. :oops: Let's try this again. The "culture test" format is one of my favorite things Mark did. I've always wanted to produce one. Over the past few years, I've generated an alternate history project called Palmera , a setting for a novel. The nov...