#and they will produce more and more and more hp stuff

[howabhwmwn]

there will be a harry potter tv show with jkr as executive producer and i want to just.. idk stop living in this reality? i just want to be done

[chussyracing]

Yes I totally agree with cancelling jkr and I don't support her in any way but i just can't unlike a book/movie i grew up with😭

sure, just keep in mind every bough book and every streamed movie keeps giving her money and platform to hurt more people.

[thydungeongal]

D&D 5e is in a weird position where the game design itself is held hostage to nostalgia, where it has to pass a certain taste test of having that nebulous shape of a D&D but that actually doesn't commit to any of the D&D stuff.

It can't just be a dungeon game. That would scare away the theater kids. So the designers kind of have to worry about presenting the game as something that supports more lofty, story-driven gameplay when the game still mostly runs on a dungeon game engine. But an important part of those nebulous vibes of D&D is an adherence to a certain type of rules structure and a resistance to game design that's more focused towards producing a conventional narrative. Otherwise people say it's "not D&D" (as a rule: people who say this often can't articulate what D&D actually is).

Many D&D players clearly run the game as a heroic fantasy genre emulator despite the fact that D&D does very little to support that type of gameplay, because D&D can't actually, as written, be a game where a character reduced to 0 HP is just "taken out" or where losing a combat scene doesn't spell character death but has actual narrative consequences as written in the rules. And a lot of players treat them being able to do game design around a game that doesn't natively support the type of narrative they want out of it as a favor the game is doing for them. It's not that the game has a very specific playstyle that has to be patched out to support a type of gameplay that you want, it's that the game is infinitely flexible and actually the game itself enabled us to fix it.

Anyway, I think someone in a Discord group said it pretty well: D&D 5e isn't really a game about anything. It's, at most, a game about playing D&D.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1936 Chevrolet

At General Motors in 1936, vehicle testing was remarkably sophisticated. See all the equipment and methods at work in this original Chevrolet film.

Like many of the Chevrolet films produced back in the day by Jam Handy of Detroit, this one, titled Wind, Weather, and Wheels, was designed to capture the interest of a general audience. So the script writers take a few minutes to get around to the actual subject—we call it the “first, the earth cooled” method of storytelling. But at around three minutes in (feel free to skip ahead) we get to the good stuff: a tour of the General Motors Proving Ground and a detailed look at the testing procedures for the ’36 Chevrolet.

For the mid-thirties, the test hardware is relatively sophisticated. At 4:40 we encounter a vehicle-sized pendulum for locating the center of gravity, and at 5:40 there’s an early chassis dynomometer with full instrumentation. Steering effort is checked with a wheel-mounted torqueometer, while a fifth wheel validates fuel consumption. And at around 9:30, a vacuum pump and smoke machine are used to test the cabin seal. We enjoy seeing this old gear at work, and along the way, there are some excellent views of the Proving Ground in its early, more rustic form. The facility, still a busy place today, is modestly described here as “the greatest outdoor laboratory in the world.”

In 1936, Chevrolet was not the best-selling car in the USA. In fact, Ford beat Chevrolet in total volume in ’34 through ’37, no doubt due in part to the selling power of Ford’s 85 hp V8. But with 79 hp, Chevy’s overhead-valve inline six was at least in the game, and a redesigned six the following year matched the Ford V8 in rated output. At $495 to $655, Chevrolet undercut Ford in pricing by a few bucks in ’36, losing to Ford by a mere 12,000 units. Video follows.

[oleander-in-drag]

I feel like JK Rowling ruined the idea of separating the art from the artist in more ways than one. Not just because people can’t separate her art from her no matter how much they try to, but also in the opposite direction where there’s now such a culture of holding every shitty creator to the same standard as her. As if no art can now be separated from any artist.

I also think this developed from our current parasocial culture, where the artists feels so intrinsically linked to their creation because we feel like we know their whole heart and soul, and therefore that we view their creations through that lens, no matter what the medium is. Even if it’s a show created by hundreds of people and worked on by so many different actors and writers and producers etc. that it’s barely connected to the original creator in the first place except by name.

What I’m saying is, most other media is not the same as Harry Potter. Just because the creator is a shitty person or has done terrible things, doesn’t mean that we need to hold their creations to the same standard as JK Rowling’s, because usually the situation is completely different.

JK Rowling is inextricable from Harry Potter. She is the sole owner of anything to do with it, and she has already admitted that any money she receives proves to her that people support her disgustingly transphobic, misogynistic and racist views. She then proceeds to use this money to donate to anti-trans charities.

She is also in the unique position of being quite possibly the most influential writer of all time. I cannot emphasise enough how much higher of a pedestal she is placed upon by society than pretty much any other writer/creator in history. Shakespeare himself could rise from the fucking dead and he still probably wouldn’t have as much power as JK Rowling has on TERF Island, probably because he would find her crazy for hating drag.

Her influence is so great that she is actively able to encourage anti-trans laws to pass in her countr(ies). She has leaders of our fucking political parties setting up meetings with her to talk about the future of trans rights and encouraging her to accept a peerage from the House of Fucking Lords (aka offering her the highest position of political power in the whole of fucking England). Allowing this influence to spread, not just by giving her money but also talking about Harry Potter at all, is incredibly detrimental to an entire group of marginalised people.

There is basically no other writer or creator in this same position, who is using their fraction of influence to cause systemic harm to marginalised people. Either they’re dead, or no one outside of their fandom spaces gives a shit about what they have to say. Even if you’re uncomfortable about giving them money, just pirate their stuff and move on, because then you won’t be giving them a shred of power that they barely already had.

Like…. you don’t have to add a disclaimer every time you post about a show created by a shitty person. You don’t have to defend yourself for playing Five Nights at Freddy’s or reading HP Lovecraft or watching fucking Hazbin Hotel. No one’s going to kill you, or think you’re a moral failure because you like a random cartoon or a book you took out from the fucking library that was written by a pervert from the 1800s. Just chill and enjoy your stuff.

But Harry Potter? No. Fuck that series and fuck its author and fuck the astronomical amount of harm she has caused— and will continue to cause until her last dying breath— to thousands of people. You can’t separate that art. Don’t even try.

[mintyelbows]

MY STUFF HECK YEAH

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

drarry standalones

like it's the only thing i'll ever do [T, 11.4k]

Years of childish animosity suddenly changes into something else entirely during their seventh year. And to Harry’s astonishment, he enjoys this way too much. Or, Harry compliments Draco every time he sees him.

you again, my love [T, 6.8k]

Harry has an overthinking problem, and Draco is rolling his eyes. Or, Harry proposes(?) while Draco is asleep.

sweet treatment [T, 2.1k]

Halloween brings with it unpleasant reminders, and Harry is comforted by a few sweet treats and a roommate who likes caramel. HP Halloween Fest 2024 | @hphalloweenfest

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

drarry smut

Viewer's Discretion [E, 21.3k]

Draco’s seventh year isn’t going the way he thought it would, for better or worse. Ravenclaw!Draco x Slytherin!Harry

poor taste (in everything but you) [E, 6.3k]

Harry is getting tired of being interrupted by trick-or-treaters, and one very blonde, very impatient man barging into his house uninvited is not an improvement... well, until it is. HP Halloween Fest 2024 | @hphalloweenfest

private displays of affection [E, 2.9k]

Harry can't keep his hands to himself, and Draco thinks he's a brat for it. WW Reverse Trope Fest 2024 | @wwreversetropefest2024

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

hp gen standalones

a tasteful trick of magic [G, 2k]

Against all odds, the muggles have managed to find their way to Malfoy Manor on Halloween – and they want candy. Flourish & Blott's All Hallows' Eve Fest 2024 | @fiourish-and-blotts

hollowed [G, 3k]

On Halloween, the eighth-years throw a costume party in the Forbidden Forest, all of them dressing up as their Patronuses and ready to have a good time! But Halloween is the anniversary of the deaths of Harry’s parents. The Forbidden Forest was where he died, sacrificed for the greater good. And Draco has never been able to produce a Patronus. HP Halloween Fest 2024 | @hphalloweenfest

then, a memory [G, 1.1k]

Luna watches, more than most. WW Reverse Trope Fest 2024 | @wwreversetropefest2024

[ms-demeanor]

So i do have trouble running anything in my lap, but it is old and very basic but I can't really get a new one, how do i learn how to change its RAM, battery and anything that could make it perform better?

So I actually have a post that's a basic explainer on this kind of stuff, but here's my specific steps for figuring out if your computer can take more RAM, what kind of RAM it takes, and if/how you can install it.

If you're in a hurry or this entire thing looks intimidating, scroll down to the section with the pink text for a quick and dirty way to find what you're looking for that I don't wholly endorse because there are sometimes errors with this process.

This is literally my job, so while this guide won't cover all contingencies it is the basic process that I do every time I need to source upgrades for a computer.

How to Find RAM for your computer:

Step One: Identify the model of your computer. This is usually visible in a sticker with a barcode on the back of the tower or on the bottom of a laptop. If you aren't sure, you can search "how to find model number of [Samsung laptop][HP desktop][etc.]" I'm going to use a Lenovo M710e as my example here, because it was the computer I had to find RAM for yesterday.

So, the ThinkCentre M710e is the product line and the model/product number is 10UR001JUS. The product number gives us the information about the specific configuration of that computer when it was sold, while the product line gives us the general information about configurations that were produced as part of this line. So for example, all M710e desktops will accept the same RAM technology, but the 10UR001JUS specifically came with 2x4GB RAM modules while another line might have come with 1x8GB RAM installed.

GENERALLY SPEAKING it is better for you to work from your product ID/product number/model number and not from the product line.

Step Two: Find out what memory technology your computer uses, what's installed, and what the max your computer will accept is. Most manufacturers will have spec sheets, so if you search the part/product number you will likely see a link from the manufacturer for the specifications of that device. Here's the one for this computer:

So this tells me that the computer has 8GB total memory in 2 modules of DDR4 RAM with a speed of 2400 Mhz. When I am shopping for RAM the important numbers here are DDR4 and 2400. BUT this does not tell me how much RAM the computer can take or what the physical format of that RAM is, so I need to look a little more, which I do by searching "[model number] specifications," which brings me to a Newegg page that has more information about the specs:

This shows me that the computer has 8GB of DDR4 2400 RAM installed in 2 slots. It shows that the computer only has two slots, and it shows me that the maximum RAM for the computer is 32GB. What this means is that if I want to upgrade the RAM I would need to remove a module from at least one of the slots.

RAM tends to come in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB modules. If I wanted to increase the RAM in this computer for the least amount of money possible, I would add one 8GB module, and that would help the computer a lot, taking it from 8GB to 12GB. BUT if I wanted a higher performance for just a little bit more money, I'd replace both 4GB modules with 8GB modules. RAM is happier and works better when the modules in the computer match, so what I'd do is look for 2 8GB modules that are faster than 2400mhz.

Step Three: because I'm me and I was the one who initially ordered this computer five years ago and I have RAM upgrades for this model in my order history, this is where I would stop. But if it was for a computer that I wasn't familiar with, this is where I would check my work. I do this by going to the Crucial Memory tool:

I'd click on "upgrade my computer" and I'd use the "upgrade finder" option.

If you are searching for a RAM upgrade on the computer that you are currently using, you can use the Crucial Scanner tool which will read the specifications of your system and take you to recommended upgrades that Crucial thinks are compatible with your system. I do not 100% endorse doing this, and if you do use this option I recommend checking Crucial's work because I've ordered RAM on Crucial's recommendation in the past and then found that it was incompatible when we went to install.

But, like I said, I use the upgrade finder option. There are a TON of computers listed in this, so once you go through manufacturer (lenovo, in this example) and product line (for crucial, "product line" here means "thinkcentre") I'll use ctrl+F with "M710e" to find the actual product, because scrolling though this bullshit is for chumps:

That takes you to a page with what should be your computer's specs and recommendations for product upgrades:

As I scroll through, looking for 16GB upgrades, I notice that all the RAM listed is 288 pin, which is the correct size for this computer. RAM tends to come in two physical formats for consumers, Desktop RAM and Laptop RAM. Desktop RAM is longer, Laptop RAM is shorter. There are some more complicated layers to that, but what it means is that I need to match the RAM in my search to the format the computer uses.

So let's say that I want to upgrade my computer here and I decide that I want to go with the 3200 speed. So instead of buying from Crucial (which you could do if you wanted to) I decide to shop around. If I search for "16GB DDR4-3200" on Amazon here's what I get:

One of those is 288 pin and will fit in desktops, the other is 260 pin and will fit in laptops or very small form factor desktops. You need to make sure, either by checking the specifications from the manufacturer or on a ram compatibility site or PC part picker, that you are getting the correct physical format in addition to the correct size/technology/speed.

Step Four: Shop around. I prefer not to buy from Amazon when I can help it, and I like seeing what deals I can get. You *do* have the option of clicking "where to buy" on Crucial and there are usually several choices of where to get that specific Crucial part number, but I want to see if there are more generic options, or options from other brands I like.

A newegg search shows me an A-tech 16GB kit with the specs I'm looking for, but at a higher price than Crucial. Poking around a few places doesn't show me any better deals than Crucial, so I go back over to the crucial site, click on "where to buy" for the product I want, and choose to get it from B&H because it's not amazon and I've got an account there.

Step Five: Figure out how to put the RAM inside of your computer. The easiest way to do this is usually to check IFixIt.com, a website designed to show people how to fix their computers.

IFixIt has guides for some types of ThinkCentres but not an M710e. I can check out the M72e, because that's a pretty similar model, but then it turns out the page is a stub. So I search "how to upgrade RAM in Lenovo M710e" and I found the user manual, which has an diagram of the internal parts of the computer, an exploded view of where everything goes, and a section on replacing RAM modules.

Replacing RAM on most desktops is pretty simple, and if you haven't done it and this set of diagrams doesn't give you much information, I really recommend watching some videos from Paul's Hardware that show you how to handle computer components and identify what parts of a computer you're looking at.

Replacing RAM on laptops is usually a bit more complicated than on desktops. But sometimes it's even easier (one of my computers just had a little door on the bottom where you could add RAM if you needed to). Regardless, the principles are the same - there is a slot on the motherboard for you to put RAM in. Watch videos or look at tutorials for how to open up various kinds of computers and see if you're comfortable replicating those steps.

SOME CAVEATS:

Sometimes you can't add or replace RAM. Sometimes RAM is soldered directly on the motherboard. That should be noted somewhere in the manufacturer specifications.

Sometimes computers are more of a pain in the ass to upgrade than they're worth. Most ultra-slim laptops are difficult to get into and most all-in-ones are a *nightmare* to get into. Watch videos of people working on computers similar to yours before you buy anything to figure out if you're even going to be able to get into the damned thing.

On older laptops replacing the battery is very easy, on newer ones it's getting more difficult. Use the same process of identifying your computer model number to look up compatible batteries, then look up how to replace batteries. Sometimes they're just inaccessible and difficult to get at, and sometimes you literally don't even need tools besides your thumbs.

Anyway. That was kind of a lot. I hope it made sense. Check out the linked post at the beginning for tips on performance improvements outside of hardware upgrades, and good luck.

[fandomsfordays21]

Soul Experiment AU: Experiment 041: Ink

Thanks for the support on my previous post about this au!! Since Ink and Error are going to be the "main" characters in this au. I thought I would start with them. I have more ideas on what to do with Ink though so we're starting with him. I'm going to do a poll after this so you guys can decide who I post about next. I'm planning on posting about one character per day as well as posting about my magic/soul system and then I'll work on some other stuff for this au like maybe a fanfic if enough people like it. (I'm also aware of how badly this is written, it's hard to fit all the details in this post alone. There will be separate posts about each character that take the form of Error's "Scientific Entries" but I wanted to go for a more narrative format here. Once again, ask box is open if you need clarification on anything here. I will answer even if I plan on including it in another post.)

To begin with, Ink actually has a Soul in this au, but it just doesn't work properly. Monster Souls work as both the heart, brain, and all other organs that would normally be present in the body of a Human. The "brain" functions of Ink's soul do not function properly, as his soul does not produce the magic needed for emotions and motor functions. This is where Error comes in.

Ink was taken to the lab to be used as a subject for experiments under the name "John Doe" as he had no identification, probably no family, and it was thought that he was fallen down, and that there was no hope for him. Ink was exactly what Error was looking for in a subject, a skeleton monster, fallen down so his soul must be in a deteriorative state, and he was completely unresponsive to any and all stimuli. This made him the perfect subject for Error to test the different ways he was going to wake up Geno.

Once Ink arrived to the lab, however, and Error got to do a proper examination of the nameless shorter skeleton, he came upon a problem. This Monster... wasn't fallen down. Sure, he was unresponsive in a way that was incredibly similar to the coma-like state of a fallen Monster, but it was different. Ink's soul was completely intact and undamaged, and so was his body, his HP and all other stats were completely fine, so what the hell was wrong with the subject?

Error called in the Joku twins, Dream and Nightmare, both coming from a family of Monsters with emotion-based abilities, both brothers being the last of the line and with the strongest recorded abilities. They sensed... Nothing? There was no emotional output from the nameless skeleton's Soul whatsoever, or even any emotional input, since neither of the twin's auras had any effect. This is where the experimentations began.

First line of business was to identify the problem. A Monster's Soul is similar to an organ, yes, but also so much more complex. Was the problem within the emotional magic portion of this Monster's Soul? Or was there another underlying problem that was causing it? If this Monster truly did lack the ability to produce emotions in his Soul, so much so that he was in a vegetative state, then how was he alive? How had he lived to be around the same age as Error? The scientist shook his head, 'I have more urgent things to worry about with this subject.'

A breakthrough. There was a breakthrough in Error's research that he had never seen coming. He had figured out how to isolate the emotional magic in a Monster's Soul. More importantly, he had figured out how to extract it. It wasn't a nice process, the Monster's had to be fully alive and aware during the extraction, which was incredibly painful and had lead to the death of many subjects, but it was incredible. If Error could manage to directly transfer magic from one monster to another, he could very well do similar with Human Soul traits or even entire souls.

However, this had to be tested first.

The original trial of Ink's colors is one of the few he can actually remember. He woke up on a cold metal stretcher with a bunch of machines making noise around him. His whole body felt weird and heavy. He was feeling emotions at the time, yes, but also didn't feel quite right. Like something was missing or that he didn't have enough of something. This was, of course, due to Error only providing a low dosage to start with, in case anything went wrong. Ink, of course, didn't know that, nor did the notice the glitchy skeleton wearing a lab coat that was sitting in the corner of the room, observing quietly and taking notes.

Ink blacked out again within two hours.

There was lots of testing done after that. The first trial was called that for a reason, after all.

Error introduced himself properly to the shorter skeleton by the time of the second test, seeing how the subject would respond to another person, which was met with overwhelming enthusiasm and then a puddle of vomit on his shoes.

That was a problematic side effect.

The main problem with harvesting emotional magic is that each emotion has to be harvested individually, and each is a different color. This was a problem because no particular label was given to any color, so testing each color and then recording the results was the most probable solution. Followed by giving more or less to see what dosage was the right one. There may or may not be a particularly ripped page in a notebook that desperately outlines the dangers of an intense amount of red.

Every time a test was conducted, Error would ask a series of questions to see if the influence of different concoctions would yield different answers, but also to learn more about the individual with the strangely marked bones. Oddly enough. Ink had no memory of a time before waking up in the lab, and never remembered anything that happened between tests. The memory problems were consistent, unfortunately, however not on the level of amnesia that was previously suffered. "Ink" is a chosen name, based on the markings on his face and the rest of his body.

Months passed and eventually Subject 041, or "Ink" as he had chosen to be called, was functioning as properly as an individual with a malfunctioning soul could. Going outside the lab was an option now, and Ink does regularly. He carries around vials full of each color (He decided that ingesting it was much easier than the injection method being used prior) but still lives within the lab as it is the source of his ability to feel and is where most of his companions live. (Getting to see and bother Error on a daily is a plus too.)

[gauntletqueen]

BOYCOTT FOR PALESTINE

FOA (Friends of Al-Aqsa) have organized a boycott in support of palestine.

Here are the key companies to boycott:

HP (Hewlett Packard) provides hardware and services for the Israeli Prison Service and the Israeli police who enforce apartheid on Palestinians within Israel.

Coca-Cola operates on stolen Palestinian land by having a factory in Atarot, an illegal israeli settlement. These Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Coca-Cola is defying international law.

Israeli produce should be left on all shop shelves. When shopping always #CheckTheLabel to make sure you don't accidently buy any produce labelled from 'Israel'.

PUMA sponsors the Israel Football Association (IFA) and the Israeli national team. The IFA manages several football teams in illegal Israeli settlements, built stolen Palestinian land.

We encourage all our supporters to focus on boycotting these 3 companies and to #CheckTheLabel on produce, to be more effective in ending Israeli apartheid. We aren't saying other companies aren't complicit, but we need to be targeted and strategic to make a boycott successful, just how we have been in the past with South Africa.

Please help to spread the word.

Also important to remember that coca-cola is more than just the drink coca-cola, they're also stuff like sprite, fanta, minutemaid, etc. Make sure to check!

[dog-bro]

Just to make you aware, most people in the Marauders Fandom (which is a fan spin-off from Harry Potter) are trans or queer and hate JKR with so much vitriol. Marauders fans spend absolutely zero money on the franchise - they produce fan made content so JKR doesn't profit whatsoever. Fans have taken Sirius Black and his brother and made him trans partially just to spite JKR, and partially because it makes so much sense. Totally fine if it's a boundary for you to ask HP fans not to interact with you, that's totally your right. I just wanted to let you know in case you weren't aware that no one in that fandom supports JKR and most of them are queer - I don't think any interactions came from a malicious place. Thanks for making your boundaries clear!

marauders fans spend all their time celebrating a work that itself is full of racism, anti-semitism, near-transphobia, sexism, fatphobia, and more. you are not owning JKR by continuing to support and promote her work and characters to other people, keeping the fandom and fanworks going and dragging other people's posts into it

I don't really care about the defense of why people headcanon Sirius as X, Y, or Z I would just prefer greatly if Harry Potter fans were a little more aware that maybe random [trans] people don't want you commenting on their posts with Harry Potter stuff and want even less for a second person to come and defend it to them

[samueldays]

Retrospective: D&D 3e class feature advancement and design

Of the editions of D&D that I've played, I think Third Edition is my favorite. It's imbalanced, sure, but part of what differentiates D&D from videogames is that there's a DM on hand to say "let's change that". Much of the general success of 3rd was probably due to the Open Gaming License that you may recall a recent fuss about, and two specific impacts of the OGL were 1) explosion of fan content to add on and change stuff, 2) fanmade polish of the System Reference Document (SRD), such as this hyperlinked and crosslinked version where just about everything is accessible in one click. Much less searching for rules!

I also personally liked it for the unusual way it tried hard to put player characters and monsters in the same mechanical framework using the same scale, unlike far too many games, video or tabletop, where the PC has 138 HP but does 9999 damage. (This was to some extent present in earlier editions, but 2e's Monstrous Manual fails to give a creature's Strength score, only specifying its damage directly.) D&D in general was unusually fair and honest about letting you loot Lord Mega-Evil's Mega-Sword instead of doing "2% drop chance" shenanigans. 3e went a step further to making the bugbear playable out of the box, if you wanted to play a bugbear. Bugbears were now real creatures in a sense, not simply bags of HP you popped for XP.

If you're waiting for me to get to the subject announced in the title, just keep waiting, this is a twenty year old game and I'm a grognard with a pet topic. ;-)

4th edition decided to strip much of this stuff back out again, and I detested it. 4e was super weird. 5e tentatively tried to be the simplified best bits of 1e and 3e (IMO) which is nice for the newbies, but I feel its class system still leaves much to be desired. The whole notion of "classes" in a RPG is a bit of a necessary evil. It doesn't exist in-universe, it's an abstraction because doing full pointbuy is more tiresome for players and far easier to accidentally break the system by neglecting one stat or pushing another too high. At the same time, you don't want to lock characters into a progression at level 1, so designers tend to re-invent various class options and class choices that veer back towards pointbuy, and multiclassing...

Bluntly: The "favored class" rules and multiclassing xp penalties in 3rd were failures. The hypothesis was that it would discourage "5 levels of this, 1 of this, remaining levels of this" cherry-picking and encourage keeping 2-3 classes balanced, with an exception for the favored class. What it actually encouraged was "5 levels of this, 1 level of this prestige class, remaining levels of this prestige class" because prestige classes (PrCs) were exempt. Removing that exemption would have had worse second-order effects because prestige classes had different numbers of levels and conditional advancement permission! A deeper overhaul was needed, but didn't appear. My groups usually ended up ignoring multiclassing xp penalties. Worthless rule, no content, no value. Especially the bit where it's possible to get stuck at -100% XP if you made deliberately bad choices, that's nonsense.

What was also a failure, but less so, and produced the content I want to ramble about today, is how the class system incentivized multiclassing in very different ways for different classes. I'm going to gloss over questions of obscure splatbook availability and optimization level here; if you know enough to have an opinion on them you probably don't need to be reading this.

-

Fighter: Multiclass out or prestige class ASAP. This because Fighters have no class features that scale specifically with Fighter level - feats, BAB and HP can be gotten anywhere, and stack cleanly from different classes. Fighter 4 / Barb 1 / PrestigeClassA 5 / PrestigeClassB 10 is an example outcome of starting from "Fighter" and keeping the concept without being bound to the classname.

Sorcerer: Prestige out, but only to +1 caster level classes. Sorcerers have 1 scaling class feature, "spellcasting", which is advanced as a whole by several prestige classes. Something like Sorc10 / Loremaster 10 is cool, gets you 20th level casting, and more class features.

Druid: Stay pure. Druids have multiple scaling class features, and very few prestige classes advance other than spellcasting.

(I reiterate: this is what the class system incentivized. Not what you 'should' play.)

-

This difference was not a matter of party role, but of class feature wording.

Broadly speaking, there's two kinds of class features in 3rd Edition: those that provide a static ability at a fixed level (for example, Paladins become immune to fear at 3rd level) and those that have a progression scaling with each level (for example, Paladins can Smite Evil to add their level to the damage done).

Fighters got almost entirely static abilities, and those with diminishing returns. Spellcasting was almost entirely scaling.

Paladins were closer to the Druid end of the scale due to Smite Evil and Lay on Hands saying "paladin level" (not caster level, nor character level) when calculating what to scale with. A few prestige classes explicitly advanced these features, but there was no standard framework for advancing them the way the Thaumaturgist prestige class had "+1 level of existing spellcasting class" for any of druids, clerics, wizards or sorcerers.

Theoretically, the Thaumaturgist or Mystic Theurge prestige classes also worked for other spellcasting classes such as Paladin, but this was mostly worthless because paladins were tertiary casters who got slower per-level spellcasting progression. +1 level of spellcasting had lower value for paladins or bards than it did for clerics or wizards. This was aggravated by partial progression classes such as Eldritch Knight, which provided less spellcasting advancement - measured in terms of fewer levels. They got community shorthand like 9/10 or 7/10 casting progression.

An intuitive-seeming fix haunted me for years: PrCs that give partial advancement to full casters should give full advancement to partial casters. Perhaps even more than one-for-one when advancing tertiary casters. But it was hard to spell out in rules.

Instead, WotC printed special case ugly hack PrCs like the Sublime Chord, which was blatantly "The Bard Prestige Class For Bards" that gave faster-than-bard spellcasting progression up to 9th level bard spells. (In the core game, wizards get up to 9th level spells, but bards stop at 6th level.) It worked by specifying in detail a new separate spellcasting progression meant to be used at each level from 11 to 20, after using the regular bard progression from level 1 to 10.

Ironically, this special case could then fit back into the standard framework: take 10 Bard levels, take 1 Sublime Chord prestige level, now Sublime Chord has its own spellcasting progression so it can be advanced by other prestige classes such as Loremaster or Thaumaturgist. Sublime Chord was a prestige class that bards took mostly for the spellcasting, and then they didn't need to stay in that class for the spellcasting, because spellcasting was a standard class feature that could be advanced in other ways.

What a mess.

-

Still, I gotta give Wizards credit for being willing to fuck around and try new stuff to get out of this mess they'd made.

During 3rd edition, some of their later pile-ons to this mess were the Truenaming magic system that worked based on a skill check instead of levels (this was swiftly exploited because Make Single Number Go Up is easy for nerds with a wide variety of options), the Shadowcasting magic system that got to retroactively convert the class levels of a wizard who multiclassed into shadowcaster (I never saw this used in practice), and the Initiating not-a-magic system in the Tome of Battle:

Instead of caster levels you had initiator levels, and instead of casting a spell you initiate a martial maneuver, and the maneuver involved swinging your sword around so expertly that it shot fireballs or healed your friends or added an extra 8d8 damage or froze the enemy's lifeblood with the Five-Shadow Creeping Ice Enervation Strike. It also let you resist poison or block mind control by concentrating really hard on how you are a mall ninja One with the Blade.

(image: a Blade Magic user who has convinced the DM that hitting people with your bare hands counts as a 'blade' if you call it Knife-Hand Strike.)

It was actually pretty good, once you got past the flowery names, the weeaboo aesthetic shift, the increased complexity, the dissociated mechanics, and the fact that Wizards printed three initiator subsystem classes that were different enough to be annoying. Now that I'm done damning it with faint praise: you calculate multiclass initiator level by taking your main initiator class's class level and adding half the levels in other classes, whether or not they are initiator classes. A Swordsage 6/Fighter 6 character counts as Swordsage 9 for purposes of the Swordsage's primary class feature: initiator level and martial maneuvers.

This sort of worked to encourage a moderate amount of multiclassing on occasion by reducing the cost, but not really, because of nonlinear scaling. The low-level Swordsage abilities are on the order of "Fighter but with 1d6+1 fire damage". The high-level Swordsage abilities are like "Enemy has to make a Fortitude save or die. On a successful save, enemy still takes 20d6 extra damage on top of your regular damage" and "Quasi-timestop: you get 10 opportunities in a row to pick up a nearby enemy and throw him. Your choice whether you want to throw 10 guys off a cliff, or bounce 1 guy against the wall until he dies."

This class feature progression was cribbed from the core spellcasting system for Sorcerers and Druids, see above for the multiclass incentives on those.

-

I don't have a general solution. Here is my sketch of a fix to the spellcasting part, also usable with the cribbed-from-spellcasting class features like initiator progression:

Build a spellcasting progression separately from a class. Each progression goes up to 9th level spells at character level 20, or the system equivalent. The "Wizard" class then gets a class feature which says something like "+1 spellcasting progression at each level". The "Bard" class gets a class feature which says something like "+0.75 spellcasting progression at each level". The Paladin class get a class feature which says something like "+0.4 spellcasting progression at each level". Round up or down with minima to taste.

This replicates the effect of the 3e progression where the Wizard got up to 9th level spells, the Bard got 6th and the Paladin stopped at merely 4th.

But by separating the spellcasting progression, all these base classes get the same amount of benefit from a Prestige Class which provides +X spellcasting progression per level (X probably 0.5-1). In regular 3e, spellcasting progression classes were worth far more to the wizard than to the paladin, because the paladin got 1/20th of a step towards 4th level spells and the wizard got 1/20th of a step towards 9th level spells.

This eliminates the weird special case that is the Sublime Chord, also eliminates certain other kinds of dumb cheese around Ur-Priest, creates space for semi-focused casting prestige classes that provide 0.9 spellcasting that's an improvement for bards but a slowdown for wizards, and makes it easier for Fighter-adjacent and Rogue-adjacent classes and prestige classes like Assassin to dabble in a little bit of spellcasting at a controlled rate. In weird design space, it allows backloading on a class that goes from +0.5 to +1.5 over the course of several levels to "catch up".

A downside is that this "fractional casting" is more granular, more bookkeeping, and closer to pointbuy, but it's a small step and D&D 3.5 was already including the similar Fractional BAB/Saves in optional rules. Maybe someone can be inspired by this to make something easier.

-

Now I would like to say that D&D Third Edition has come and gone and will probably never be repeated, having been supplanted by two later editions twenty years on, especially 3.5e with all its baroque customization, but that would be a lie because not only did it spawn a great many clones, Pathfinder is out there being a big name 3.5e clone with just enough tweaks to not be a copyright infringement. (Also: just enough tweaks to not quite be backwards compatible.) So I feel I should try to give helpful advice for design of class-based RPG systems, rather than just this historical overview so far. Here's my big suggestion:

Figure out how a class offers value, and why I should keep taking it.

The D&D 3e Fighter fails this test. You should multiclass out. Full BAB, d10 HD, crappy skills, Fortitude save (more chassis than feature) are available elsewhere. Feats (the only real feature) have diminishing returns.

The Pathfinder Fighter still fails this test - it's been given tiny value buffs like the scaling effect of Weapon Training: for every 4 levels get +1 to damage with a weapon group. Meanwhile the wizards are still off getting caster levels that give +1d6 spell damage every single level, and it's easy to get 1 damage every 4 levels from other sources.

Also, the Pathfinder Fighter has been given a Bravery feature: +1 on saves against fear for every 4 levels. Meanwhile the Paladin is still getting outright fear immunity at level 3.

The converse of this suggestion is asking yourself in design: Which of a class's valuable features can I get elsewhere?

For the Fighter it's "all of them", for the Sorcerer it's "all of them, but fewer places" and for the Druid it's complicated but "one-third" is a first approximation.

Extra corollary: "...and if getting those features elsewhere, what am I giving up or getting on the side?"

[all-things-skylanders]

Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th

Jason Vorhees as a Skylander!

I will admit, I've never actually watched a Friday the 13th movie, because horror movies are too scary for my easily frightened self, but I did a look over the wiki, and he's iconic enough that I feel Jason probably wouldn't be too wild of a character.

Jason would be an Undead element Skylander, with a devastating kit and very high bulk, but it is hampered by his extremely small range, making him forced to tank some hits to land his attacks. Read below to find out more!

Stats:

Health: 350 (Level 1) 1050 (Level 20)

Power: 58

Speed: 25

Armor: 50

Critical Hit: 42

Elemental Power: 25

Core Abilities:

Primary - Machete: Jason uses his trusty machete to do a powerful slash that deals AOE damage in a very small radius. Can stun weak enemies that survive it.

Secondary - Slasher: Using the Secondary, Jason will charge forwards, swinging his machete in front of him to deal damage to everything in his path. It also deals some minor knockback, forcing foes out of the way.

Upgrades (ordered by cost to purchase):

500 - Tertiary - Durability: Using Jason's Tertiary will let him use the superhuman durability he shows throughout the series to (sort of) survive so many movies. Jason will temporarily increase his defense substantially, while also gaining a minor damage increase. This attack cannot be used for a little while after the buff wears off.

700 - Stalker: Press the Tertiary button while using Slasher in order to enter a Stalk state. While in this state, Jason's speed is increased, and he turns invisible, with enemies unable to see him. The Stalk will end as soon as he attacks, and his first attack leaving Stalk will deal double damage.

900 - Sharpened Blade: Jason's attacks using his machete deal more damage.

1200 - Relentless: While buffed by Durability, Jason's Slasher has more range, and can be aimed while using the move.

Upgrade Paths:

Path 1 - Mechete Mad-Man: Unlock more powerful blade abilities, upping Jason's raw power even further!

1700 - Machete Master: Press 'Primary, Primary, Secondary' to perform a machete throw combo, and 'Primary, Primary, Tertiary' to do an AOE ground slam combo.

2200 - Whetstone: Jason's blades grow EVEN stronger, dealing more damage and deal MORE damage.

3000 - "TWO machetes???": Jason carries a second machete in his off hand, making him able to attack twice as fast, and make more knife swings during Slasher.

Path 2 - Death-Defier: Use Jason's seeming immortality to stay past your welcome among hordes of enemies, just like the real Friday the 13th movies!

1700 - Furious Maniac: While using Durability, Jason's Speed also increases.

2200 - Stalker Hauntings: While in a Stalk state, pressing the Secondary button will have Jason produce Ambiance, that will scare enemies, stunning them and making them take even more damage the next time they are hit while stunned.

3000 - Immortal: The first time Jason is defeated, he will be revived with 20% of max HP, and a temporary Speed, Damage and Attack Speed buff.

Soul Gem:

4000 - Stalk Slaughter: Pressing the Tertiary button while Stalking will have Jason swing his machete around wildly, doing huge damage all around him, before leaving the Stalk state.

Other Stuff:

Jason would not have a catchphrase when placed on the portal, instead just staring at the camera, breathing heavily.

[haropro-confessions]

LMAO at ppl being so defensive about having an opinion on a damn graduation costume. Umm, it was just a thought thinking about what was the thought behind a graduation outfit because it seems unexpected? The choice is made so idk whatever? but I was still wondering about it. Are people not allowed to think a different option would have looked more interesting? I'm not a controlfreak fan or someone who complains about those types but everyone is entitled to their opinion??? I also hope you ppl NEVER comment on a song/outfit/anything else that isn't your cup of tea or you actively dislike and you only ever PRAISE TF out of whatever idols/producers,etc put out there. I've been one to defend my faves (especially back then) from other other fans' harsh opinions and I am very lenient with HP even when fans say something about them "sucks" and stuff like that so what does that have to do with anything? Get off your high horse. No one's going to a member's house to force them to choose a different outfit (or management, who knows). It's just an opinion for the fun of it. I'm sure the girls will survive.

[cobaltsoulsearcher]

New Pinned Post!

Critter, Linguist, College Student. Same user on AO3. https://soulexplores.neocities.org/

Identity stuff: USAmerican with white privilege and generational wealth. Genderqueer Lesbian. LSN Autistic/Hypermobile/Moderate OCD. I do identify as disabled and prefer identity-first language. Teenager, but more than old enough to be here. Solarpunk-oriented liberal.  English, Spanish, and Indonesian speaker. 

Fandoms: Critical Role, Hadestown

Hobbies: TTRPGs, writing/reading, rollerskating

Favorite writers: Amal el-Mohtar, Sarah Gailey, NK Jemison

Optional before-you-follow: 

 I do not post donation requests because I generally like to keep this to be a space of joy for myself. 

I have a bit of an online persona going on. Call me Soul :) If you know my real name, location, age, or birthday, no you don’t.  I lie about stuff online all the time; don’t trust strangers on the internet, me included.  

I tend to start a lot of monthly challenges without finishing them. My general outlook is that I don’t think it’s doing any harm and I do produce something from it, so why not? I’m very sorry if this bothers you, just let me know and I can amend my relevant behavior/posting.

I come to my fandoms with the perspective that they are flawed and have problematic elements, but are ultimately not currently doing harm. I painfully abandoned HP because it was indefensible, but am under no illusions the things I am into now are perfect, and am in fact very aware of Critical Role/His Dark Materials/Tolkein etc’s issues. That said, while I have an obligation to be aware of these things, I do not want to center my fandom experience on discourse. 

I won’t get mad at you no matter what pronouns you use for me. 

I am too lazy to block all the spam bots etc. 

I’m firmly anti-generative AI for artistic/creative use. 

Mutuals and friends are more than welcome to ask for my discord. Besides tumblr and A03, that is what I use the most.

I also freely share my Dropout, Beacon access, Hadestown bootlegs I have access to, and so on with folks who’ve interacted with me. 

[neotriobrainrot-reborn]

Because I am legally insane about Mushroom Girl, here is a fanmade moveset for her!

Also, imma call her Rosary for namesakes.

Epithet: Fungus

Description: Allows her to create fungi with a variety of effects, but at a cost

Consume(passive)

As an effect of her epithet that’s been there before she even knew she was inscribed, her hands act as a fungi of sorts in a general sense (with some differences). As soon as she makes contact with anything organic, it’ll slowly rot as if it’s being eaten alive while recovering some of Rosary’s HP/STAMINA proportional to how much of the target it consumes. And it will continue to rot until she stops making hand contact. Everything organic, from plant life and trees, to actual living creatures (including humans) will suffer from this effect. Because this is a passive part of her epithet, she can’t turn this off. This is a part of her epithet that she hates, and the only way she has been able to alleviate it is by putting on thick gloves to avoid contact.

The speed in which objects will decay depends on the size. While plant life would decay quickly, it’ll take a lot longer to decay something like a tree.

[This is mainly from the definition of Fungus, which is “Any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter, including molds, yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools”]

Sweet Poison (passive)

Another passive side effect of her epithet is that she can’t be harmed via poison/venom. In fact, her body will actually convert poisons into painkillers, slightly reducing the damage she’d take from attacks.

[Funnily enough, the inspiration for this actually came from the grasshopper mouse. It’s essentially resistant to poison that would kill animals 100 times its size, and actually converts the toxin into painkillers.]

Cordymon Zombie

Rosary summons a bright pink fungus that will orbit around her finger. By pointing at a target(summons) and clicking her thumb in a finger-gun gesture, she can shoot the fungus towards her target, which will explode in a puff of spores upon contact. After some time, the summon will not only fall under Rosary’s control via a summon-fungus springing out of the summon’s head, but the fungus will transform a summon into a slightly but significantly stronger state.

It’s to note that this only works on summons, and it has a size limit. While it would work on stuff like Sylvie’s sheep extremely well, it wouldn’t do much to a summon like Graham. This also doesn’t work on anything that isn’t a summon, like a person for example. At best, shooting this at a person will only give them a sneezing fit for 5 seconds.

The move is also light in weight, which means that someone with even a small wind based attack can blow the fungus away before it can even make contact, effectively making them useless.

[Inspiration is obviously the cordyceps/zombie-ant fungus lol]

Oyster Club

She can create a small clutter of blue fungi with white poke-dots and with eyes that looks like a cartoon doodle in her hand. Upon hearing someone’s voice enough times, it can mimic the person efficiently with great accuracy and clarity. Unfortunately, the Oyster summons can only store 3 copied voices at a time, and if a 4th one is collected, it forgets the oldest stored voice.

[Inspiration came from a YouTube video called “Five Minutes of Blue Oyster Mushrooms Talking”]

Golden Agaric

Upon summoning a golden fungus similar to an Agaric fungus on her head and saying the phrase “Golden Agaric, impart your wisdom!”, the summon takes control of Rosary’s brain. This appears useless to any witnesses, but the fungus amplifies her 5 senses and her reaction speed, allowing her to fight beyond her own capabilities. Unfortunately, she relinquishes all control of herself to the summon, and while the summon is generally more pragmatic when it comes to helping her, it’ll do what it thinks is best for her. Fortunately, this only lasts for five minutes

[Funnily enough, this move was entirely inspired by the magic conch in that one SpongeBob episode. Is it goofy? Yes. Do I love it? Also yes]

Weakness

All of her summons are extremely flammable, and like her summons, she’s extremely weak to heat based attacks. She’s a lot more susceptible to a heatstroke than the average person

Let me know what ya think. I had fun writing this!

[dm-clockwork-dragon]

Another Unpopular Opinion

I was asked to delete my earlier reblog by the OP, so they didn’t get sucked into discourse, so I’m reposing this as it’s own thing Well, here I go publicly stating another opinion that will probably get me cancelled. To be entirely fair, I’m sort of beyond caring at this point?

I think people need to calm their fucking tits - homegrown, surgical, or happily removed - over not just this game, but about HP stuff in general.

I’m a recently hatched egg, but I’ve considered myself non-binary for almost 15 years, and been an ally for as long as I knew what an ally was. I also have no particular love for the franchise, despite enjoying it a lot when I was a kid. That’s not virtue signally, or an attempt to defend my position - just letting you all know a little context, and that I do actually have a horse in this race.

I get it, I really do. JK is a fucking terrible person, and should burn in a thousand multicolored hells for the bullshit she spews and the hate she engenders in others. On top of that, she’s a shitty writer, to the point where she accidentally created an entire wizarding world where the difference between the good guys and the bad guys is just what flavor of Nazi you want to choose. But there’s a couple reasons I think that people really need to try and separate her from the franchise that she started.

1. Death of the Author.

This is the one that everyone else gives. It’s possible to enjoy, appreciate, or interpret a creative work in absence of it’s author or their intent. We do it with music, we do it with painting. and Like OP here points out: if we were to burn every book written by a problematic author, we would leave glaring wholes not just in our understanding of our own history and society, but in our understanding of how to avoid the same injustices and suffering caused by those authors. Dead or alive, the author’s right and control over who others interpret their work the moment they share it with the outside world.

2. You guys don’t know how JK makes money, do you?

I see all kinds of arguments out there about how engaging with, or - dare I even mention - paying for HP content is somehow a crime against transfolk because it directly supports a raging TERF and her platform. It doesn’t. Aside from the argument that JK makes all her money through investments and stock market trades - just like any rich person - She also DOESN’T OWN THE FRANCHISE. She retains intellectual property rights: AKA, she can write new books or shit if she likes (we have seen how that goes for her), and she is still treated as the primary source, but the IP and all production rights are owned by Warner Bros. JK doesn’t make a dime off of game, movies, or anything else that WB license or produce based on THEIR franchise. She already made her money by selling the franchise to them years ago. Honestly, she probably got the raw end of the deal at this point. At most, she might get some meager royalties that are eaten up entirely by the cost of paying someone to process them. That’s how publishing contracts and movie deals work - they are a fucking racket.  3. HP isn’t just something some people can throw away.

Like I said above, I sorta grew out of my HP phase, long before any of the issue of JK being a TERF ever came up. And I know that a lot of people who considered themselves fans have also willingly distanced themselves from the franchise in light of her shitty views and actions. But not everyone has that ability. To give you a different example: I grew up reading the Dune books. I finished the core series for the first time when I was 8, and have re-read the entire extended series more than a dozen times since then. It’s more than just my favorite book series, it’s a formative part of who I am as a person. So much of my beliefs and identity as a person have been informed or inspired by those books that I would argue it is impossible to truly understand myself without them. Hell - I’d argue the entire reason I started explore my gender and sexuality in the first place is because of the emphasis those books placed on the “Quisach Haderach” as the perfect fusion of male and female. Even if I were to verbally disavow the series for some reason, those books still define who I am today, and It would be physically impossible for me to separate myself from them Harry Potter is the same way for a lot of people. I think some of us loose sight of just how meaningful those books are to a generation. Not all of us - even within that generation - had the same connection, but for a lot of people who grew up reading them from the time they could turn a page, those books are just as formative and intrinsic to who they are as Dune is to me. they couldn’t separate themselves, even if they wanted to. And pissing all over someone for something they can’t change about themselves is exactly the sort of thing we are supposed to be fighting against! Same can be said of the bible, the Torah, the Quran or any other work that was meaningful and formative to a persons cultural upbringing. Even within the trans community, there are countless Christians, Jews, and Islamic followers. They make the faith their own, because it is an intrinsic and immutable part of who they are. If you are going to condemn Trans or Allies who can’t separate themselves form HP, then you are also condemning any Ally or Transperson who still practices or believes in some form of the religion the grew up with.  4. If we can reclaim slurs, we can reclaim this! I see so many of the same people who rail against HP, also writing or relogging posts about how important it is to reclaim slurs and other labels that have been historically used against us, and I agree. But that shit goes a lot further than just the names we have been called. Reclaiming something from those who would hurt you with it is like picking up the rock that was thrown at you, and saying “neat, this is mine now, you cant have it back”, as opposed to just kicking it back to the abuser so they can hurl it at you again. JK is a terrible person. which is all the more reason that we have a responsibility to take this beloved franchise away from her. She doesn’t deserve it, and as long as it remains in her power, she can continue to use it as a platform to hurt people. And this isn’t without precedent: Look at Butch Hartman, or Joss Wheaton, or Notch, or Gary Gygax. We have a history and a present filled with examples of taking beloved content away from shitty people a deciding “this is ours now, you can’t have it back.” We take those things that were or are important to us, and reframe them, re-write them, or reimagine them into something positive and supportive.  As an author myself, I know quite well how painful it can be to see your work taken away from you, and transformed by people who don’t share your vision. So lets hurt JK where it counts! Not in the wallet, not by railing against her on social media, but by taking away the one meaningful thing she has ever created in her miserable life. Because she doesn’t fucking deserve it.