A problem with the X-Card concept is that it can only be used within the pre-existing Overton Window of the group anyway, so you might as well ditch it in favor of normal social negotiation. For example, X-Card guidelines always tell players they can use it to block anything they're uncomfortable with. However, you'll quickly learn you can't use it to block political ideology from the DM, even if you legitimately find it triggering and distressing.
> you'll quickly learn you can't use it to block political ideology from the DM
That's like, not true at all. The X card is exactly for that purpose, the GM doesn't get a special exception from the effect of the X card.
As a GM, if a player reaches for the X card for any reason I'm obliged to stop and listen.
I'm curious what exactly you mean by "political ideology" in this context. Can you give a concrete example of the kind of thing that makes you uncomfortable?
I believe you, but that's not the case everywhere. I've had DMs who have put drag shows in our game as part of tavern entertainment, for example. Even though I have no problem with them in real life, I have no desire to see them in my fantasy game because it just reminds me of contemporary culture war shenanigans. When questioned on it or asked if we could not do that, I've received nothing but pushback. Stuff like that.
I find the X-Card most useful at conventions. When I sit down at a table I have no idea where strangers' lines are. It provides a more frictionless way to let people tell you how to be courteous, without knowing them very well.
I think guidelines and an equivalent of a trigger warning is a better solution. It's really hard to modify a campaign on the fly if for example someone is uncomfortable with cults but that's the primary driver of the storyline.
It's another means of communication, ultimately. If your desires and needs for the game are incompatible with others in the group, it's not going to work out (and the more rigid this is, the smaller the set of people you're going to be able to play with).
I know a number of otherwise pleasant people who have as a political/philosophical view that it's not rude to insult certain identity groups.
I wouldn't say I find it triggering when someone says something about men, just annoying, but I can imagine someone who is more easily upset feeling that way.
That being said, if you have friends willing to say things that they know upset you, you probably need better friends, not a card.
Mostly political agendas that spill over from the real world, often surrounding themes of social justice and left-wing activism but sometimes right wing fascist themes as well. I just find it infuriating to have the DM shoehorn their extremist political views into a game. Especially with the leftist DMs, I've found that I'm usually expected to reinforce their beliefs and not question them, even with provided X-Cards or the like.
But what is an example of this in a game? How would this come up in a way that you'd feel uncomfortable with? I'm just struggling to see concretely what this would look like.
Examples elsewhere in this comment section like eg sexual assault I can easily see how that would both come up in a game and interact with player experience to make them uncomfortable in a way they may not want to have to explain in the middle of a session.
I'm getting downvoted simply for giving examples, thus proving my point. But if you need a concrete example, I once had a DM include a drag show in-game.
That’s pretty disingenuous. There’s a very big different between theatre and a drag show.
I’m sure the player in question wouldn’t have minded an old timey theater production of all men playing women. Drag shows are pretty modern and I’m sure entirely took them out of the setting, just as if the DM had the bad guys have Uzis and AK-47s.
I visualize some geographic location either in my home town where I grew up or in my current city. It's so vivid that I actually drive through some neighborhoods and can instantly recall what I was working on. I have a map with pins in each location I've visualized and what problem I was working on.
Exactly, there are numerous reasons other than it's not possible.
1.Time-travel will never become possible.
2.Time-travel becomes possible. Their time travel capabilities are inadequate to visit us.
3.Time-travel becomes possible. They do not wish to visit us.
4.Our archiving and preservation techniques are inadequate. Our message does not reach the future.
5.Time travel becomes possible. They are willing and able to travel to the past. Our archiving and preservation techniques are adequate. The message has not been accessed in its future database.
6. Time travel becomes possible. They are willing and able to travel to the past. Our archiving and preservation techniques are adequate. We are not able to perceive or become aware of their visitation.
7. Time travel becomes possible, however traveling back in time opens a new timeline and the old timeline exists in the past of the new timeline unchanged. So we observe the old version of the timeline, wile there's an alternate reality where guests attended the party and another future rebased on top of that history.
8. Time travel becomes possible. They are willing and able to travel to the past. Our archiving and preservation techniques are adequate. They aren't allowed to tell us they are from the future or meaningfully interact with us in ways which might change the timeline (temporal prime directive).
Also, rebasing the future makes me think of time travel as git history.
Imagine the merge requests and the fights inside them
this would be a very unlikely scenario where in our current timeline there are no time travelers but there are at least one in each new timeline. If that becomes true it might be the ultimate vacations/retirement plan, create a new timeline where you are the only timetraveler
I'm big on #2 and #3 myself. I'm willing to accept that there are windows of time they can travel to with little risk (timelines, people, events, etc.). Also, the idea that proving time travel is possible by visiting people in previous times would be potentially dangerous or impossible (any uncontrollable variables lead to disbelief of individual).
It's just campaign rules for Chainmail, their medieval weapon combat rules invented for the already existing Elastolin and Starlux figures. It was a system for wargamers much more interested in the weapon speed of pole arms rather than accurate political and social structure. They needed a world of treasure and magic to fuel the adventures, so a setting of accumulated Appendix N source material was pieced together into an entirely new setting.
Let's try to calculate an optimal prepping strategy using a back-of-the-envelope Bayesian approach with expected utility. We need to estimate the probability of a societal collapse along with its potential severity. Then, assign utility values to each combination of severity and prepping actions. I think we can actually make informed choices here instead of pretending we know how a highly chaotic, future system might function.
Prepping actions could be anything from a well-stocked pantry to fully equipped underground bunker.
EU(A) = P(C) * Σ[P(S | C) * U(S, A)]
EU(A) is the expected utility of prepping action A
P(C) is the probability of a collapse occurring
P(S | C) is the conditional probability of a specific severity S given a collapse
U(S, A) is the utility of action A given severity S
We can leave it to the reader to make their own decisions.
I got my Technicians license about a year ago but have struggled to find much to do with it. I check into my local nets every once and a while, but the repeaters are nearly silent otherwise. The CW privileges are ok but hard to use. Seems you need a General to do all the cool stuff. Any other technicians here who have found a great use for the license?
Don’t discount 10m voice or digital modes. You can absolutely work the world with minimal equipment and power on 10m, especially when the sunspots are active.
Not from US so I'm not sure but I think you can access the 10 metre band with technician? If so, doing Parks on the Air or Summits on the Air could possibly be something you might like.
Even with Technician you may be able to do POTA or SOTA successfully on VHF.
I joined my local SKYWARN to get a license to do storm spotting which all happens on the VHF bands. We get a lot of severe weather where I live so this allows me to be on those bands more often than I otherwise would.
But I do agree, the real meat of ham radio is when you get your General and get on HF. It opens up the door to the rest of the world, not just your local city.
my first few contacts were POTA contacts before that was a formal game. Just take your radio with you wherever you go and try to dial up repeaters or VHF/UHF simplex call frequency. for POTA formally you have to contact via simplex but you can coordinate on a repeater.
DMR has a lot of traffic and you can get a decent DMR handy-talky for about $150 so it's worthwhile.
Yeah activity is really really low compared to the 80s especially on VHF and above. I don't do anything below that for lack of antenna space. So it can be boring. Digital is a bit better because it links repeaters in large groups.
But the heydays are over. During the 80s/early 90s it was really hard to break into the chat when I was driving to work. So busy. Back then there were no legal issues with speaking into a microphone while driving either. So it made the morning traffic much more fun.
But then the internet came and the whole "speak to people all over the world for free!" thing really lost its shine. The home computer before that did a lot already too (until they came on the scene pretty much all geeks were hams)
They didn't just start, they've been selling these off-and-on for years. I have a 25 year food bucket I bought right around the financial crisis 15 years ago.
No, I have it stashed in the basement. I made it through a natural disaster in my area in the middle of a global pandemic and wasn't even tempted to crack it open once. Hope I never will.
