Zompist Bboard Again

Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 9:40 pm Today I've learnt what apostilling is.

It's a bit of a niche thing that doesn't often come up, indeed. At least I don't need to apostille the documents for my upcoming move to Luxembourg...

An elderly friend of the family is in the hospital after a stroke. I don't know her that well personally, but I know her husband fairly well.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 4:55 am

Torco wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 10:25 am targeting chocolate ads to people a day after they register their spouse's passing seems profitable. With this API, I can yield an automated daily report of recent widowers to our advertising agency, so promote me.

Interesting idea, but I think I'll pass, sorry If that's the alternative, I'd rather keep sending the damn certificates.

Ikr? it happens to me something similar with e-voting. it's like, yeah, voting from home would be nice but... then again...

Just yesterday my brother and my other brother's girlfriend got into a pretty serious car crash. My brother sustained a concussion and a minor injury to his spleen while my brother's girlfriend sustained two broken limbs, a shattered pelvis, marrow on her lungs and a more serious concussion. Both were speaking when the police arrived at the accident though although the girl had to be cut out of the car by firemen.

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:07 am Just yesterday my brother and my other brother's girlfriend got into a pretty serious car crash. My brother sustained a concussion and a minor injury to his spleen while my brother's girlfriend sustained two broken limbs, a shattered pelvis, marrow on her lungs and a more serious concussion. Both were speaking when the police arrived at the accident though although the girl had to be cut out of the car by firemen.

Oh dear. Good luck to them and you!

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:37 am An elderly friend of the family is in the hospital after a stroke. I don't know her that well personally, but I know her husband fairly well.

Turns out the husband of the couple had a stroke a day or two after his wife did. He's in the hospital, too. When it rains...

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:07 am Just yesterday my brother and my other brother's girlfriend got into a pretty serious car crash. My brother sustained a concussion and a minor injury to his spleen while my brother's girlfriend sustained two broken limbs, a shattered pelvis, marrow on her lungs and a more serious concussion. Both were speaking when the police arrived at the accident though although the girl had to be cut out of the car by firemen.

That really sucks!

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 6:32 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 9:37 am An elderly friend of the family is in the hospital after a stroke. I don't know her that well personally, but I know her husband fairly well.

Turns out the husband of the couple had a stroke a day or two after his wife did. He's in the hospital, too. When it rains...

Sorry to hear!

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 6:32 am Turns out the husband of the couple had a stroke a day or two after his wife did. He's in the hospital, too. When it rains...

I'm sorry to hear that.

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:07 am Just yesterday my brother and my other brother's girlfriend got into a pretty serious car crash. My brother sustained a concussion and a minor injury to his spleen while my brother's girlfriend sustained two broken limbs, a shattered pelvis, marrow on her lungs and a more serious concussion. Both were speaking when the police arrived at the accident though although the girl had to be cut out of the car by firemen.

That sucks. I hope both of them get better soon.

I'd like to play tabletop role-playing games with some friends, and went to a RPG convention last weekend to meet some, but my experience there just confirmed what I have been feeling for long: most people who claim to play role-playing games really just play skirmish wargames, either abusing role-playing games for that purpose, or games that are marketed as "role-playing games" but really are merely glorified skirmish wargames. But role-playing games can be so much more than that.

This is similar to the way music that has only little to do with prog rock is called "prog rock" nowadays. (A difference is that in case of prog rock, the "true" prog rock is older and thus can claim priority, while role-playing games actually evolved from skirmish wargames in the 1970s.) Why are the names of things I am into widely abused for things I am not at all into?

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:00 am I'd like to play tabletop role-playing games with some friends, and went to a RPG convention last weekend to meet some, but my experience there just confirmed what I have been feeling for long: most people who claim to play role-playing games really just play skirmish wargames, either abusing role-playing games for that purpose, or games that are marketed as "role-playing games" but really are merely glorified skirmish wargames. But role-playing games can be so much more than that.

I can relate. I never really got into RPG -- the monster fights with funny dice can be exceedingly boring. And it's not that easy to find a group that's interested in more.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 1:46 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:00 am I'd like to play tabletop role-playing games with some friends, and went to a RPG convention last weekend to meet some, but my experience there just confirmed what I have been feeling for long: most people who claim to play role-playing games really just play skirmish wargames, either abusing role-playing games for that purpose, or games that are marketed as "role-playing games" but really are merely glorified skirmish wargames. But role-playing games can be so much more than that.

I can relate. I never really got into RPG -- the monster fights with funny dice can be exceedingly boring. And it's not that easy to find a group that's interested in more.

Just that. RPG combat is boring, and I don't like stories where problems are solved with violence. Another way of putting this is that to most RPG aficionados, combat is about as central to roleplaying as scoring goals is to soccer.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 2:44 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 1:46 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:00 am I'd like to play tabletop role-playing games with some friends, and went to a RPG convention last weekend to meet some, but my experience there just confirmed what I have been feeling for long: most people who claim to play role-playing games really just play skirmish wargames, either abusing role-playing games for that purpose, or games that are marketed as "role-playing games" but really are merely glorified skirmish wargames. But role-playing games can be so much more than that.

I can relate. I never really got into RPG -- the monster fights with funny dice can be exceedingly boring. And it's not that easy to find a group that's interested in more.

Just that. RPG combat is boring, and I don't like stories where problems are solved with violence. Another way of putting this is that to most RPG aficionados, combat is about as central to roleplaying as scoring goals is to soccer.

Trying to con my brother into doing an adventure with a bit more social interaction and roleplay but that's on an indefinite hiatus due to above mentioned events.

In my family, it's one main financial hit after another right now.

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 4:49 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 2:44 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 1:46 am

I can relate. I never really got into RPG -- the monster fights with funny dice can be exceedingly boring. And it's not that easy to find a group that's interested in more.

Just that. RPG combat is boring, and I don't like stories where problems are solved with violence. Another way of putting this is that to most RPG aficionados, combat is about as central to roleplaying as scoring goals is to soccer.

Trying to con my brother into doing an adventure with a bit more social interaction and roleplay but that's on an indefinite hiatus due to above mentioned events.

It's kind of ironic that for something called roleplaying, most people default to thinking of the main component being the combat and not playing roles. I do a lot of writing in a fan community that is focused on social aspects so that tends to carry over to any ttrpgs people start up, but not everyone has an available community to draw on.

linguistcat wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 11:51 am

foxcatdog wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 4:49 am

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 2:44 am

Just that. RPG combat is boring, and I don't like stories where problems are solved with violence. Another way of putting this is that to most RPG aficionados, combat is about as central to roleplaying as scoring goals is to soccer.

Trying to con my brother into doing an adventure with a bit more social interaction and roleplay but that's on an indefinite hiatus due to above mentioned events.

It's kind of ironic that for something called roleplaying, most people default to thinking of the main component being the combat and not playing roles. I do a lot of writing in a fan community that is focused on social aspects so that tends to carry over to any ttrpgs people start up, but not everyone has an available community to draw on.

It probably has to do with the history of TTRPGs: they evolved from skirmish wargames. I even seem to remember reading somewhere that D&D was initially marketed as a "wargame" and only latter called a "role-playing game". Also, TTRPGs appear to be popular, for whichever reason (perhaps they have heard at some point that computer RPGs originated in them), among socially inept IT nerds who prefer combat because it doesn't require social skills from the players - you just have to roll dice and mark off points on your character sheet. I have met many of this kind of people when I tried to find roleplayers.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 12:57 pmI even seem to remember reading somewhere that D&D was initially marketed as a "wargame" and only latter called a "role-playing game".

This is quite true: it started out as a table-top wargame, and the role-playing bits were shoehorned in later.

alice wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 2:58 pm

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 12:57 pmI even seem to remember reading somewhere that D&D was initially marketed as a "wargame" and only latter called a "role-playing game".

This is quite true: it started out as a table-top wargame, and the role-playing bits were shoehorned in later.

I've replied to this where it belongs.

I was on vacation this week, to visit the Norman Music Festival (which runs from Thursday to Saturday).

- Arrive on Tuesday.
- Catch sick Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
- Recover sufficiently by Saturday to do things.
- This being Oklahoma, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms occur on Saturday, so it’s cancelled.
- Best friend and I try to go to a museum to salvage things but they closed shortly before we got there.
- Get the wrong checkout time for the hotel.
- TSA guy tells me I can leave my watch on because it won’t trip a false positive on the scanner, which proves to be false.
- The undergarments I have to wear because of my Crohn’s also set off the alarm so I get to be violated by a very slow-moving TSA agent. (I’m just going to opt for the patdown from now on…if I’m going to set it off anyway I might as well just get it over with.)
- Flight is delayed FOUR TIMES, meaning I cannot make the connection, and they have no other flights to Cleveland today. I have to wait until 5:15 AM now.

I can never take vacations because of my health issues and the one time I manage to swing it, shit like this happens. My life is a joke. I exist to suffer. I work, I experience health crises, and I’m going to die. Might as well get used to it.

Sounds thoroughly miserable… you have my sympathy.