#I wasn't gonna post this but like it's my blog and I can

[thedouglastrap]

Something about this post is bugging me, but every time I to put my finger on it, I feel like the reason slips away. So I think I'll just try to sort through it here and see where that leads me.

Mechanical changes impacting play style makes sense, but I think I question the cause and effect here. Because the rules mentioned that "encouraged the GM to think of monsters as real living creatures", morale and reaction rolls, are things that seem (to me at least) less about making these monsters seem real and more about adding more angles to introduce randomness to random encounters. If a random aboleth shows up while you're walking from point A to point B, a reaction roll is a quick and dirty way to see how they view the players, but it doesn't account for what an aboleth is. Similarly, a morale roll is giving a method beyond the DM just making an arbitrary ruling sans dice. That's not to say that a good DM can't use the roll to breathe some life into an encounter, of course, but I don't know if I would say those rules being removed/put in the flavor rather than made a general rule was a primary contributor to a greater emphasis on combat, or if that was even an intentional design choice.

(as a side note: looking up what reaction rolls actually were were, I stumbled onto a blog about the whole OSR thing in ttrpgs, and decided to go down the rabbit hole for a bit. It seems like a lot of the conclusions being drawn in this post are close to issues raised over there, but they tend to include AD&D2e as a point where the shift happened, making it less a TSR/WotC difference)

Now, if there IS a greater focus on combat in that shift, I think it's probably due to the game getting crunchier over time during that shift. 2e seemed to start it off with a wide variety of optional rules, and 3.x cemented it. But notably, it did this for non-combat as well, which makes me think that it was less a design choice to make things more combat oriented and more to provide comprehensive rules, with combat being the most fleshed out part in service to the whole heroic adventure aesthetic.

I think one of the biggest issues I'm running into is the following point about how encounters have to be these justified forced combat encounters and the dissonance this can provide. I think part of that is because that conclusion just doesn't match up with the reality I was seeing playing 3.x or seeing other people talking about it. Not to say combat wasn't the focus, but plenty of non-combat encounters happened, enemies ran away, scenarios were derailed by roleplay rather than combat, etc. And sure, that's anecdotal, but I think it's relevant. The game does, after all, provide individual sections for monsters giving a basic rundown of what the creature is. Some are more bare-bones than other, but when Archons are listed as "never attacking first, but being easily provoked", that's a pretty clear indicator that forced combat should not be the default assumption. If players ignore that, sure, but that's no different than ignoring reaction rolls imo.

The real difference, I think, is the afforementioned shift from a focus on an open world where the party has more freedom to explore and do whatever they want while the world happens around them, to a focus on more structured narratives where the players are characters in a story that is unfolding around them. Its a shift away from "well the dice say there's an aggressive dragon swooping in, have fun with that" towards "I planned out the encounter you're gonna run into between startersville and plotlandia". That also kinda follows from the idea of encounter balance. Having a random dragon swoop in on a third level party isn't a balanced encounter unless the DM goes out of their way to make it one, but that takes more time and prep than rolling a few dice and opening to a statblock can account for. And yes, planned encounters like this can, if done poorly, just be a shooting gallery of forced fights with thin justifications. It could also be well crafted encounters where you could talk down the goblins instead of fighting by opening trade negotiations.

The play style that the difference in design encourages isn't so much "fight all the things vs treat your enemies like actual living things" as it is "how structured do you want this game to be", which is ultimately value-neutral. And the moral disconnect about what you're fighting seems like an entirely separate thing from that. Neither style inherently encourages or discourages that, and it feels uncharitable to say that WotC-era d&d is more skewed to be morally uncomplicated than TSR-era.

So there is a pretty clear shift in playstyle between TSR D&D and WotC D&D: for better and for worse, D&D 3e introduced the idea of encounter balance, de-emphasized mechanics that had previously encouraged the GM to think of the monsters as real living creatures (reaction rolls, morale, etc.), and it had the effect of making D&D a much more combat-focused game. D&D has always been a game that's opinionated about combat, it's basically the most expressive and detailed form of play regardless of edition, but combat in the TSR editions was not exactly zoomed in and tactical. The WotC editions purposefully made combat zoomed in, granular, and tactical.

And this has had an effect on playstyle: since combat is now the main form of player expression what players actually want is for their characters to get into combat. Because combat is the most fun part of the game. But the game has also changed from the largely amoral dungeon-crawling game into a game of fantasy heroics (even though a lot of the trappings of the amoral dungeon-crawling still remain, which contributes to the dissonance), so you can't just have the player characters going into combat for the sake of it. That would frame the player characters as kind of Fucked Up, and we can't have that in our supposedly heroic fantasy.

What you end up with is a variety of contrivances like "they're bandits," "they're cultists," or, my all-time favorite, "they attacked first" to make the action seem morally justifiable, even though gameplay is still motivated by a desire to fight. The monsters fight to the death and, importantly, can often not be reasoned and negotiated with, partly because combat is supposed to be the fun, engaging part everyone is here to do, but also because if they actually acted like reasonable people it could cause dissonance with the whole "the player characters are the goodest heroes."

As my friend @tenleaguesbeneath once called it: what is actually going on is that the player characters are hunting people and monsters who have been programmed to fight to the death and never negotiate for sport, while justifying it as self-defence.

It's a simple power fantasy, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Sometimes you want to play a morally uncomplicated game about killing guys with cool magic swords. But I think it's also fun to think about what the specific types of monsters players end up fighting reveals about Society the invisible, unexamined ideology lying under the surface that the designers of even modern D&D have failed to examine. And to me it often reads like a frontier justice fantasy. None of that is to detract from anyone's joy of the game, and for me it's just fun to think about and post about this stuff while Still Enjoying the Game, but if someone expressing that opinion makes you feel uncomfortable, why? That's pretty silly imo.

[moonsidesong]

paintelly doodles that are also kind of inside jokes from a group chat i'm in ?!???? uhh they bought candy at the local five below

[fooltofancy]

[thatchaotictiefling]

OH WAIT I FORGOT TO POST THIS!

I title this: Smoking is cool and all 7 year olds should try it.

My DND OC Violet (shadow monk/rogue) in a baseball pinup sort of vibe, I'm obsessed with her. Heavily inspired by my time in the TF2 fandom and a certain type of scout art.

Violet hits things with a stick until they die too, so it kinda fits lmao. I may do more inspired by other TF2 classes? We will see.

ID in alt text

[pythoness94]

miss...you do know you don't have to say everything online, right? Let's break it down.

"so I don’t like a actor, sue me."

no one is sueing you, just voicing their opinion as they have the right to do. Just as you do.

"I see that what I posted was insensitive so I deleted the original post. "

it wasn't really insensitive but the topic of Noah in general is. Often times you can't just say you hate someone without any listed reason and not expect people to draw from the common reason said person is hated. The information of a statement said is not on the reader to do the research but the poster.

"I’m not always a happy positive person pal. "

nobody is but it doesn't give you the right to say whatever you want without consequences. Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequences. People respond to your posts that you post online where everyone can see. If you can't deal with it. Don't say it.

"I have real actual anger problems and I tend to say things that aren’t nice out of frustration "

that's just not our problem. So do I but if I say something because of my anger problems I don't expect people to take it on the chin and just deal with it. If your frustrated. Get offline. This is simply not something that needed to be voiced. You didn't need to respond to @hawkins-batman but you did and opened yourself up to this. often times you have to block and move on, but you didn't and now you have to face the consequences of your frustration.

"(like a lot of people) and I know that doesn’t justify being a bitch but in a world full of people your gonna come across some that don’t agree with you, "

despite saying this you don't seem to understand that and decide to fight back. Yes. People don't agree with you. Deal with it. People don't agree with Hawkins either but they deal with it too. You don't always need to respond and it's often healthier for your anger issues not to. Every angry thought or response doesn't need to be voiced. You should really think out what you're going to type or write it out, than delete it because you'll just get more angry when they eventually respond.

"and I never was saying everyone should hate Noah I just wanted to say something I thought on my blog heaven forbid. "

Again, people will draw their own conclusions and nobody is telling you not to post. They'll saying that you should expect to get a response when you post something controversal.

Okay I’m just gonna say it

I love Will Byers he’s amazing obviously

But

I really don’t like Noah Schnapp

Sorry

(not sorry)

[l-tora-l-archived]

Hello (again :6) !!!

[midnightmah07]

Sick and tired of my Tumblr and my twitter sending me disrespectful Christian memes sir I'm not interested in these unfunny jokes about my God can you please not put that in my tl

[obnoxiousarcade]

I have a longing to be understood more than anything else i think

[formulaford2022]

My predictions cause I'm bored

f2:

Antonelli and Mini

Mini and Linblad

Mini and Beganovic

Mini is getting that seat. If Antonelli doesn't get the merc seat he's staying for sure. If Arvid wants to move up, he's getting it over Dino. If Arvid fights for the f3 championship again (although I say he moves up and does two seasons of f2 and then takes the rb seat in 2027) (rb is running a Liam Yuki lineup for two years before one leaves. trust me please) Dino would get the seat, but imo Lindblad has a much higher chance for f1 than Beganovic does. )Luke Browning is getting a hitech f2 seat I know it) (My dream lineup next season would be Mini Browning but that is not happening).

F3:

Lindblad, Camara, Taponen

Lindblad, Camara, Wharton

Camara, Taponen, Wharton

Camara, Taponen, Pin

Camara, Wharton, Pin

Camara, Taponen, Slater

Camara, Wharton, Slater

Basically if Arvid stays he's getting the seat. Rafael Camara is getting that seat for sure. Taponen would slay in the lineup and he has f3 experience and did pretty good, however Wharton is not doing too terrible and also has f3 experience so I guess it depends. Merc would be smart to move Pin up to f3 if they ever want to field that absolutely slay lineup that would be Antonelli/Pin, however they'll probably do another year of freca for her because they hate to see women shine. I'm feeling a Slater to freca move, but idk he seems like someone who would skip a level.

FRECA:

Ugochukwu, Wharton, Slater

Wharton, Slater, Pin

Ugochukwu, Slater, Pin

Powell, Slater, Pin

Ugochukwu, Powell, Slater

Wharton, Slater, Powell

Wharton, Slater, Weug

Ugochukwu, Slater, Weug

Slater, Pin, Weug

If Wharton doesn't move up to F3, he definitely is staying with Prema. Pin is dependent on if Iron Dames runs a few cars again. (Same with Weug. Idk if she would do Iron dames or just straight up prema, but I think she should've been doing freca this year anyway). Slater is getting that seat unless he makes the move to f3 (which in that case some other variation of Wharton/Ugochukwu/Pin/Powell/Weug). Ugo's season has been pretty decent and I could either see him staying another year or moving to a different team. Powell is doing really well in f4 and would be the best bet for a move up to freca.

F4:

Not doing a bullet list for this cause idk how many cars they are going to have. I could see Powell, Nakamura-Berta, and Stolcermanis running again next year, unless Powell moves up to freca. I think Hausmann would do good to run Italian F4 and F1 Academy at the same time (and F4 UAE) (Please let her do F4 UAE at least). They're definitely moving Oleksandr Bondarev up from karting. For F1 Academy, I would say keep Hausmann, bring up a girl from karting (maybe Luna Fluxa?), and try and get Chloe Chambers for her second season. (Unless Chloe chooses to move up to freca. In that case offer her a seat before someone else does. I love Iron dames but they cannot have every female driver) (though technically Prema is Iron dames, because Iron Dames is Iron Lynx and so is Prema).

Indycar:

Callum ilott and someone from the former prema world. (for personal reasons I hope it's Fred Vesti) (It won't be, but I hope it is.) (this one is for fun I honestly have no idea) (Callum Ilott/Rinus Veekay would go so hard) (I would cry if it was Alexander Rossi)

Theres not enough people talking about how Prema is going to have a huge lineup change next year in all their categories and its lowkey stressing me out

F2

With Ollie leaving for Haas this frees up one seat for next season and nobody knows currently if Kimi is leaving for F1 next year or staying in f2. If Kimi does end up leaving that means Prema can move up 2 drivers (probs from f3) and have an entirely new line up or if he stays they can move up one f3 driver

F3

W/ Gabriele and Dino both on their 2nd year of f3 they're more than likely gonna be looking for an f2 seat next season and Arvid has had an amazing season but I doubt he'll be moved up bc he's a rookie. So if Kimi stays in f2 theres only one seat available for either Dino or Gabriele and the one who doesn't get picked will more than likely jump teams to get into f2 like Arthur and Paul. But if Kimi leaves 2/3 of the f3 lineup gets a promotion.

Freca/Formula regional by Alpine:

The only one in their second year is Rafa Camara who is currently running away with the championship, so he'll more than likely be moved up to f3 or something next year. James wharton and Ugo Ugochukwu are only in their first year, so they won't be moving. Though I wish Maya could've been put into freca again and not just f1a

Italian f4:

They literally have 6 drivers wtf. Nakamura-Berta, Stolcermanis and Powell are all rookies, so they won't be looking to move up next season. Which leaves Al Dhaheri, Gowda and Slater available but seeing as only Freddie Slater is the only "vet" top 5 in the standings hes the only one I see moving up to freca. But then again Italian f4 is also hard af so they're not exactly shitty, so they might end up jumping teams to got to freca.

F1a/F1 Academy:

Man I honestly have no idea what the fuck they're doing w/ the girls especially w/ the 2 year limit, probs drop them ngl. Maya should be in freca again alongside Dorianne smh

Im basing most of these on the driver spending 2 years minimum in each category ngl and this is just my opinion so dont kill me

[tvrningout]

guess who just finished delwyn's bio B)))

[biracy]

Tbh I should probably take a break. I almost definitely won't but I should, yknow

[sunny-bunny-bird]

I’m gonna be deadass I am so pissed abt the bullshit I just saw.

Schizophrenia is not an excuse!! I’m sorry those fucks were being mean to you. I agree they are being like, genuinely ableist. But as a PROFESSIONAL ECOLOGIST you have a responsibly to say “I’m sorry, I was wrong” not edit a tumblr post (which you admit on this site isn’t effective) and then deflect any blame by focusing on the backlash you’re getting.

And I swear to god before any says “this is tumblr who cares lol” maybe the other schizophrenics like ME who LIVE IN THAT AREA and had to be in your delusional over-reaction with you for a bit while they did the research you AS A PROFESSIONAL, SOMETHING YOU ARE CURRENTLY TALKING ABOUT AS AN EXCUSE FOR WHY YOU WERE SO UPSET could not be assed to do because you saw a twitter post???

you have not plainly apologized and recanted your statement. anything that could be remotely taken as such has been padded in layers and layers of you talking about how bad YOU feel. fuck. off. oh my god.

[facetsofthecloset]

Ok this is so weird to me, I stg I learned about this rhubarb and this EXACT sound file of it growing ON TUMBLR some years ago but with a post that had a MUCH different tone

it was basically just “hey guys, did you know you can grow rhubarb super fast if you put it in the dark? it grows so fast you can hear it! here’s the audio! neat huh?” and everyone was like “oh yeah! neat!”

and now there’s this post that’s like “oh my god guys, did you know there’s EVIL rhubarb that grows in the DARK, like some kind of bogeyman vegetable?! it’s HORRIFYING” and everyone is like “AHHHHH IT’S EVIL!!!”

i’m not saying it’s bad i’m just saying it’s really funny having seen both posts and how it exactly demonstrates how framing and word choice can cause the EXACT SAME THING to give people VERY different reactions

[lettersiarrange]

Since I just checked my ask box for the first time in a hot minute:

Just a note that tumblr doesn't tell me when I have new asks or messages and I rarely check my notifications. Helpful corrections of misinformation/any messages in good faith are appreciated (though it's possible I won't see them until weeks later, sorry), but if something I reblog angers you enough you feel the need to get hostile in my askbox on anon, I reccomend the unfollow button.

I'm also not comfortable posting asks asking for any sort of donations/directing people to your blog for donation purposes, sorry :// I just don't have time to vet asks like that

[letbuckfuck]

can i be hypocritical for a second

[starboundsingularities]

good lird they did not make a gimmick blog about a real life murder

#someone fucking DIED but whatever who gives a shit it's funny i guess

7 notes

🥚 eggvidenced Follow

honestly with how suspicious and confusing everything on the dl-6 case was i wouldn't be surprised if it came out that it was that prosecutor guy tbh

🌟 rockliker270 Follow

date posted: june 23, 2010

1,834,853 notes

⚖️ courtofpublicopinions Follow

🌟 rockliker270 Follow

ok hear me out. what abt winston payne though

🧊 just--ice Follow

okay now they're just making lawyers up

#also didn't mvk die or something?

28,932 notes

🔥 triedbyfire Follow

why the fuck are you people still posting about the gavinners as if theyre not copaganda. didn't the guitarist get convicted of murder

🎸 guiltiest-lovers837 Follow

so fucking tired of this "um um didn't daryan get convicted of murder" YEAH AND HE'S LITERALLY NOT IN THE FUCKING BAND ANYMORE. dipshit

🔥 triedbyfire Follow

are you gonna address the copaganda thing or

1,092 notes

🌻 attorneybout Follow

he's so. 😳

📂 trialanderror Follow

why is he defending

📂 trialanderror Follow

OP WHY IS HE DEFENDING???

24,374 notes

🦈 giantlakemonsters Follow

i just wanna hear about another gourdy sighting thats all

🥜 liberdeez Follow

op. i'm so sorry op. gourdy isn't real you have to let her go. they had a whole trial about it.

🔐 wrightorwrong Follow

hi!! so this isn't actually the case as while gourdy was briefly mentioned in a trial, said trial had nothing to do with whether or not gourdy was "real" per se as much as. well. murder, actually. while gourdy WAS found out to be an inflatable steel samurai this was not brought up in the case at all as the veracity of gourdy wasn't really as relevant as the fact that the witness was looking for gourdy rather than at the murder she claimed to have seen. plus this was also a relatively small part of a MUCH larger trial which for those interested not only solved the dl-6 case but ALSO marked the end of prosecutor von karma's ~40 year long record and the court records are really a fascinating read through!!

🦀 mad_libz_87 Follow

net 0 information post

#thanks again lawblr

94,834 notes

🍒 cherriescoola Follow

btw i was at the park the other day and klavier gavin (of gavinners fame) was there and obv there was a huge crowd but this guy was there with him and at some point he (the other guy) waved to the crowd and someone still screamed like it was klavier??? who was that guy ive never seen him before in my life

2,284 notes

🩸 has-dl6-been-solved-yet Follow

December 28, 2016

YES!!!

702,947 notes

🪙 tellerlikeitis Follow

guys help i'm a bank teller and this guy just introduced himself as robin banks what do i do

🔪 violencekilling Follow

you gotta let him rob you that's the law

302,948 notes

👻 ghostesswiththemostest Follow

look if i ever get convicted of murder im just hiring the lawyer with the coolest sounding name

💼 courtofwaw Follow

bestie if you already got convicted it is Too Late

62,193 notes

📋 lawandwhoreder Follow

guys i know it's real fun to think people just can predict whatever but if you look at the earliest reblogs of that post that "guessed" the true killer in the dl-6 case it was actually a post about how they didn't want to go to the store. clearly edited

#stg nobody bothers to factcheck anything anymore

7,293 notes

🐺 lawnewolf Follow

i am NOT homophobic or whatever the fuck you guys are saying now i just think its weird to write fanfiction about realass people?? go touch grass ffs

🌈 lawsbian Follow

the fun police (this guy) putting me in yaoi court but the lawyers (phoenix witrght and miles edgeworth) just keep trying to make out (real court is like this too btw)

🐺 lawnewolf Follow

YOU HAVE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU.

#look idc what your enemies to lovers fic bullshit says #they're straight. and more importantly REAL PEOPLE. #there's TENSION because they are in COURT and there are LIVES on the LINE. #not because they wanna fuck. god.

12,293 notes

🔮 inhighspirits Follow

why dont they just ask the spirit mediums to ask the victims who killed them this law shit is easy

837,495 notes

💞 lawveyourself Follow

seriously i cant believe they gave this guy a law degree

💞 lawveyourself Follow

what do you mean evidence fraud

503,893 notes

🎧 instrumentalillness Follow

fuck you *unguilties your love*

384,568 notes

🎀 copiicat Follow

perjury isnt illegal btw in fact if youre one of tge witnesses youre legally required to lie on the stand. thats why everyone does it. trust me