#fiat 2020

[fiatluxillustration-portfolio]

[ktz-tl]

September 2, 2020.

[gusty-wind]

AMERICA IS A CORRUPTED CRIMINAL SYNDICATE

How is America a corrupted criminal SYNDICATE

34 TRILLION in debt is 29 trillion past total BANKRUPTCY a blatant rip off country to put it nicely.

The US dollar is a fiat currency backed by nothing but illegal aliens shit.

America operates like the old Italian Mafi in New York it strong-arm countries with its military and then takes their national treasures.

Most elections in America are fake how is that? Do you actually think Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and many others have legitimately been reelected 15 times…lol

America is one big con job nothing adds up.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

John Deere's repair fake-out

Last week, a seeming miracle came to pass: John Deere, the Big Ag monopolist that — along with Apple — has led the Axis of Evil that killed, delayed and sabotaged dozens of Right to Repair laws, sued for peace, announcing a Memorandum of Understanding with the American Farm Bureau Federation to make it easier for farmers to fix their own tractors:

https://www.fb.org/files/AFBF_John_Deere_MOU.pdf

This is a move that’s both badly needed and long overdue. Deere abuses copyright law to force farmers to pay for official repairs — even when the farmer does the repair. That’s possible thanks to a practice called VIN locking, in which engine parts come with DRM that prevents the tractor from recognizing them until they pay hundreds of dollars for a John Deere technician to come to their farm and type an unlock code into the tractor’s console:

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

Like all DRM, VIN locks are covered by Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 law that criminalizes distributing tools to bypass “access controls,” even if you do so for a lawful purpose (say, to fix your own tractor using a part you paid for). Violations of DMCA 1201 carry a penalty of 5 years in prison and a $500k fine — for a first offense.

This means that Deere owners are locked into using Deere for repairs, which also means that if Deere decides something isn’t broken, a farmer can’t get it fixed. This is very bad news indeed, because John Deere tractors are just computers in a fancy, mobile case, and John Deere is incredibly bad at digital security:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

That’s scary stuff, because John Deere is a monopolist, and a successful attack on the always-connected, networked tractors and other equipment it supplies to the world’s farmers could endanger the global food supply.

Deere doesn’t want to make insecure tractors, but it also doesn’t want to be embarrassed by security researchers who point out that its security is defective. Because security researchers have to bypass Deere tractors’ locks to probe their security, Deere can leverage DMCA1201 into a veto over who gets to warn the public about the mistakes it made.

It’s not just security researchers that Deere gets to gag: the company uses its repair monopoly to threaten farmers who complain about its business practices, holding their million-dollar farm equipment hostage to their silence:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

This all adds up to what Jay Freeman calls “felony contempt of business model,” an abuse of copyright law that allows a monopolistic corporation to reach beyond its own walls and impose its will on it customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

If Deere was finally suing for peace in the Repair Wars, well, that was wonderful news indeed — as I said, a seeming miracle.

But — like all miracles — it was too good to be true.

The MOU that Deere and the Farm Bureau signed is full of poison pills, gotchas, fine-print and mendacity, as Lauren Goode documents in her Wired article, “Right-to-Repair Advocates Question John Deere’s New Promises”:

https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-advocates-question-john-deeres-new-promises/

For starters, the MOU makes the Farm Bureau promise to end its advocacy for state Right to Repair bills, which would create a repair system governed by democratically accountable laws, not corporate fiat. Clearly, Deere has seen the writing on the wall, after the passage in 2002 of Right to Repair laws in New York and Colorado:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

These two bills broke the corporate anti-repair coalition’s winning streak, which saw dozens of state R2R bills defeated:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/26/nixing-the-fix/#r2r

Deere’s deal-with-the-devil is a cynical ploy to brake R2R’s momentum and ensure that any repairs are carried out on Deere’s terms. Now, about those terms…

Deere’s deal offers independent repair shops access to diagnostic tools and parts “on fair and reasonable terms,” a murky phrase that can mean whatever Deere decides it means. Crucially, the deal is silent on whether Deere will supply the tools needed to activate VIN locks, meaning that farmers will still be at Deere’s mercy when they effect their own repairs.

What’s more, the deal itself isn’t legally binding, and Deere can cancel it at any time. Once you dig past the headline, the Deere’s Damascene conversion to repair advocacy starts to look awfully superficial — and deceptive.

One person who wasn’t fooled is sick.codes, the hacker who has done the most important work on reverse-engineering Deere’s computer systems, culminating in last summer’s live, on-stage hack of a John Deere tractor at Defcon:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/15/deere-in-headlights/#doh-a-deere

Shortly after the announcement, Sick.codes tweeted how the fine-print in the MOU would have prevented him from doing the work he’s already done (including “a direct stab at me lol”):

https://twitter.com/sickcodes/status/1612484935495057409

As with other instances of monopolistic, corporate copyfraud — like, say, the deceptive Open Gaming License — the John Deere capitulation is really a bid to take away your rights, dressed up as a gift of more rights:

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/706163316598407168/good-riddance-to-the-open-gaming-license

[Image ID: Hieronymus Bosch's painting, 'The Conjurer.' The Conjuror's shell-game table holds a small John Deere tractor that the audience of yokels gawps at. One yokel is wearing a John Deere hat. The conjurer is holding a wrench.]

[reality-detective]

OPEN LETTER TO THE MILITARY

We the People are asking you to assist us to take our country and sovereignty back from the corporation and FED banksters and corrupt politicians. We are FIRING every last one of them!!! They no longer represent us; therefore, they are FIRED!!!!  We are done being slaves and paying taxes that our gov wastes our $$ and it's not even backed by gold, which is fiat worthless paper by illegal and corrupt FED!!!  We want the 2020 election fixed; we know you all know JB the Pedo did NOT win.  We have the right to dissolve the gov when all other measures have been exhausted. We have tried January 6th protests, Convoy’s, Multitudes of protests, going to school board meetings, Town meetings, Attending the Trump Rallies, the rightful winner!! Social Media Warriors Voting: election machines rigged & It was ALL rigged,

See the movie RIGGED and Mike Lendel’s Proof. We have lost friends, family members thru covid, poisonous vaccines, and thru sharing the horrific truth of all hidden from us for decades, Kennedy assassination and 9/11 is just two of 100s of examples we could give. We are tired of wars and paying for wars we DO NOT want!!!  We do NOT want to support any wars unless enemies attack us. We want our country back and are demanding you act ASAP on our behalf, we want action, we want our sovereignty, we never agreed to be a mini corporation at birth and given all Capitol letters on our birth certificates!!!! We never agreed to be traded like cattle while others make $$ from us unknowingly. We refuse to be slaves to the deep state for one moment longer. We want NESARA implemented ASAP. We will put another much smaller government in place once these horrible, inept people are fired and prosecuted for their crimes against us and our CHILDREN. Patriots who agree please share.

Military reading this please take this message from We the people to your commanding officers. Please respond to us using the EAS system.

Patriots this needs to go viral on every platform. We the people have spoken. The Military needs to act now on our behalf. Before we have no country left!!!

Respectfully,

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 🤔

[aurorialwolf]

REDACTED CHARACTERS AS CARS: PART TWO, LISTENERS

Same stuff applies as the last one! These are the cars I think they are, not the ones theyd drive! This is based on the cars "faces" and vibes !! And also if anyone has done this before kudos to them :3 Angel - Bus (a cute one) (this is sort of influenced by the fact that my town has an "Angel Bus" to transport the disabled elderly around the towns)

Baaabe - 2020 Yellow-Sun Mercedes-Benz (idk why but I associate them with yellow, and this one looks yellow and smart)

Sweetheart - 2025 Mazda 3 Hatchback (it's got hella stealth / detective vibes) (i mean look at the way it's squinting at us)

Darlin - Ok I am really sorry for this one tbh, this would be early darlin as a car

But THIS would be current darlin: (Chestnut Bronze Alpina B7 Bi-Turbo)

Lovely - I'm not sure of the brand, but it would definitely be a dark cherry coloured car, cuz I think dark red is totallyyyy their current vibe with the whole "coming into their own as a vampire" thing they've got going on

Treasure (in their porter era, previous treasure would be a very sensible hatchback or smth)

Freelancer (I kid you not I looked up dark blue cheap car cuz they would totally have the vibes of a college student's ol' reliable car that they got for a good deal) (I mean this in a very positive sense)

Dear - Aqua car!!! Looks stern and like it could be a professor

Sunshine (sensible, and STRONG!! very reliable!!!)

Starlight - Hyundai Aura, Starry Night colour (it's a very sensible little car and it looks like u could take it on roadtrips and it would have a peek at things) (imagine puttering down a road at night in this nice lil car and that's starlight's investigative vibes)

Cutie - 2016 Fiat 500C Easy (it's very cute and I strongly associate light blue with Cutie!! Imagine this lil guy reading ur mind. super adorable)

Smartass (this is the snarky little car that showed up to work everyday. look at that face and tell me it isn't here to bug its boss)

Honey - Kia Picanto (it's honey-coloured and the face gives their vibes) (tough cookie partner with Guy being a goober.. thats their face when they're trying not to smile at his antics)

Pet (i ALMOST chose a car covered in suds to make a dirty joke. i have restraint, see?) (i dont have super strong opinions of pet ? but this is the car that i think matches their lil vibes)

If I forgot anyone they'll be in the next installment !! Along with some other characters I didn't mention in the first one :D @ashertickler

[lorysims]

LorySims March '23 Pack - Patreon

Hello Simmers, happy New Year to all of you! I'm finally back with the list of early-access cars you can get now on my Patreon. They're for "Back to the Future!" and "Tailor Made" subscribers, and don't forget that by subscribing you can also get the exclusive F1 2022 cars and clothes! Car list: 1954 Jaguar XK 120 2020 Fiat 500X Sport 2020 Audi A4 allroad quattro 1968 Mazda Cosmo 2022 Peugeot 9X8 2023 Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica 2021 Ferrari 812 Competizione 2021 Ram 1500 TRX CLICK HERE to join my Patreon now to get them!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephen Wolf at Daily Kos Elections:

On Monday, the Supreme Court’s far-right supermajority dealt a critical blow to democracy by granting presidents far-reaching immunity from criminal prosecution for "official" acts, eviscerating the rule of law in a country that was founded to end the rule of kings. The 6-3 decision clears the way for Donald Trump to escape justice in his ongoing federal trials and to become a dictator on "day one" should he return to office in 2025.

Trump won the presidency in 2016 by prevailing in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to his Democratic opponent, and he could do so again in 2024. Like Trump, the court's far-right majority itself was built on another undemocratic institution: minority rule in the U.S. Senate. Daily Kos Elections calculations found that Senate Republicans last won more votes or represented more Americans than Democrats in 1998, but the GOP has controlled the upper chamber nearly half the time since then. This was the case from 2000 through 2006, and again from 2014 through 2020, covering six of the last 12 federal elections. This minority rule let Republican presidents appoint five Supreme Court justices—a majority of the bench. Trump appointed three—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—while George W. Bush, who lost the popular vote for his first term, appointed the other two—John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Although a Democratic-held Senate in 1991 confirmed the sixth far-right justice, George H.W. Bush appointee Clarence Thomas, the senators voting to approve Thomas represented fewer people than those opposed.

Monday's ruling is one of the most egregious decisions in the history of a court that has repeatedly undermined democracy to help Republicans in recent decades. Since 2000, the conservative-controlled court helped hand Bush the presidency, gutted the Voting Rights Act, blocked federal courts from overturning partisan gerrymandering, and ushered in a flood of money in politics. But while these past rulings helped bring us to our current moment, Monday's decision escalated the GOP's assault on the constitutional order to an unprecedented level.

Ever since the Supreme Court handed down the infamous Bush v. Gore decision in 2000 that awarded George W. Bush the Presidency, the conservative majority of the court has given Republicans an unearned advantage over the years by breaking the court and our democracy to enact GOP minority rule by court fiat.

Monday’s despicable and insulting Trump v. United States decision continues the long line of anti-democracy actions by the MAGA majority.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Fiat 124 Sport Spider, 1966, by Pininfarina. Designed by Tom Tjaarda when he worked for Pininfarina, the spider version of the 124 was built by Pininfarina and was in production for 19 years, until 1985, for the last 4 years badged as a Pininfarina rather than a Fiat. The model was resurrected in 2016 in a joint venture with Mazda based on the 4th generation MX-5 but sales failed to sustain the revived spider beyond 2020

[mariacallous]

Apple has been ordered to pay €13 billion ($14.4bn) of unpaid taxes to the Irish state, in a court ruling that ended a decade-long fight between Europe and the big tech company.

In a judgment handed down on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) agreed with a European Commission ruling in 2016, which found that for a period of more than 20 years Apple enjoyed illegal tax advantages that constituted state aid from the Irish government.

“The Court of Justice gives final judgment in the matter and confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid, which Ireland is required to recover,” the court said in a statement.

“Today is a huge win for European citizens and tax justice,” Margrethe Vestager, the European competition commissioner, said in a statement on X. “Ireland granted illegal aid to Apple.”

The Irish government said that it will respect the decision of the court, and points to it being of “historical relevance only”, claiming that it dates back to revenues in 1991 and 2007 which are “no longer in force,” because it introduced changes to its tax regime. “The Irish position has always been that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers,” the government’s statement read.

Dr Stephen Daly, a reader in tax law at King’s College London, says he is “stunned” by the decision, which has come after a lengthy back and forth legal battle that saw the European General Court find in Apple’s favour in 2020.

“I really didn’t see this coming,” Daly says. “I thought the Commission’s path to victory was incredibly narrow because it suffered some big defeats in similar cases against Fiat and Amazon. I thought this would be the same outcome. I’m also stunned because this is the biggest tax case in history: €13bn—which will be more than €14bn when interest is added on—will have to be paid back.”

The case relates to tax deals the Irish authorities struck with Apple in 1991 and 2007 to encourage it to headquarter two European subsidiaries in the country. Other companies were not offered the same favourable terms, leading the European Commission to accuse Ireland of giving Apple a “selective advantage.”

Ireland has long come under scrutiny for allegedly providing a tax haven for US firms. During his last stint in the White House, current presidential hopeful Donald Trump namechecked the country in a speech in which he vowed to bring “trillions of dollars” in tax revenues back to the US.

“For too long our tax code has incentivised companies to leave our country in search of lower tax rates,” he said in 2017. “It happens—many, many companies. They’re going to Ireland. They’re going all over.”

According to Daly, the ECJ decision is “not good for Ireland.” “Ireland has always tried to position itself as a country that provides generous tax rules but rules that are fair,” he says. “This certainly has harmed Ireland Inc.”

Chiara Putaturo, an EU tax policy advisor at the charity Oxfam, which is engaged in a long-running campaign against tax havens, said the judgment “delivers long-overdue justice after over a decade of Ireland standing by and allowing Apple to dodge taxes,” adding that it “‘exposes EU tax havens’ love affair with multinationals.”

However, Putaturo said that while Ireland will be forced to recover the €13bn from Apple, the case has not outlawed the use of so-called “sweetheart tax deals” in the EU. Notably, in the Fiat and Amazon cases, which were decided in 2022 and 2023 respectively, the ECJ ruled that similar deals struck in Luxembourg did not amount to state aid.

[mensfactory]

Abarth Classiche 1300 OT

The Alfa Romeo 4C may have ended production in 2020, but Stellantis is still launching new cars based on its carbon-fiber chassis.

The latest is the Abarth Classiche 1300 OT, which pays homage to the Fiat Abarth OT 1300 race car of the 1960s.

[fiatluxillustration-portfolio]

[rottenshotgungames]

I have to publish this one before I can talk about stealth

Footfall Devlog 3

This Devlog will be covering the basics of what Footfall is and the challenges of making a game so heavily inspired by immersive sims.

So, without further ado:

What is Footfall?

Footfall is an occult-industrial stealth-action rpg inspired by Dishonored, Mistborn, and Bloodborne. It aims to emulate the systemic ecosystem and emergent gameplay of immersive sims, particularly the fast, creative, movement-centric gameplay of Dishonored.

You play as Gifted of the Watchman, the god of stories and action. You are functional demigods, arcane in nature and forever part of a great cosmic play of chaos and change.

The Other Half

Editing note: This portion of the devlog covers my design philosophy reasons for talking about this particular topic today. As such, its tone (which is academic in nature) is a bit different from the other devlogs as well as the other sections of this devlog. If you, at any point, find yourself confused or bored, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.

As far as I’m concerned, all action taken within Footfall can be placed within a venn diagram composed of two circles labeled “Movement” and “Interaction.” We’ve talked about the nuances and foundational mechanics of the “movement” circle in the last two devlogs (which cover the physics engine and power sets); to delve into the majority of Footfall’s design—which lies in the intersection—we must now explore the foundational mechanics of the “Interaction” circle. This begs the question, what’s the difference?

Here, “Movement” can be defined as mechanical levers that are only limited by the “physical world” of the narrative space as well as player knowledge. What can prevent you from moving? A wall, a chain, hesitation to open a door, the lack of a specific key, so on and so forth. Movement is defined by external barriers; some movement may be able to ignore some of these barriers, and some movement may occur without the consent of that player or their character, but it will still only be limited by the physical world and interaction there with.

“Interaction,” on the other hand, is best defined as mechanical levers that impact the narrative and its presented barriers, but are limited by character proficiency and comfortability. Interacting may allow you to break down a door, pick a lock, convince a guard to turn their head, but all of that is locked behind how much knowledge that character has about those specific subjects and how comfortable they are with the approach they take.

These definitions provide us with two major points of distinction:

“Movement” is defined by the external, “Interaction” is defined by the internal

“Movement” must always be certain, “Interaction” cannot always be certain.

This is why there’s little-to-no randomization within Gifted powers, because they are (often) a pure expression of “Movement” in this system.

Before we continue, I want to say that there are a lot of games that don’t use RNG task resolution, and instead rely on resource pools or group fiat to determine whether or not an action succeeds. To me, these games still represent a degree of uncertainty with their “Interaction” mechanics, but they often include far more “player knowledge” limitation and may even add another kind to the mix (such as “dramatic desires of the group” in the latter example). The definition of “Interaction” that I’m using here, while able to be expanded upon and therefore used broadly, is crafted to represent my conceptualization of it in specific reference to Footfall.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, today we’re talking about the

Dice System and Task Resolution

Yay! Everybody’s favorite subject (on Reddit, specifically)!

I’m about to be incredibly real with you. I love skill-based games. Traveller and Call of Cthulhu are my bread and butter (even if I never get to run the CoC), and Cyberpunk 2020 is a game I think about constantly. Skill based games have this degree of free form-ness and ability for mechanical characterization that I don’t really get from playbooks and classes, and it makes them a perfect playground for all my little character ideas. That being said, they do have a key flaw.

By trying to encompass everything through the LONGEST LIST EVER, you inevitably run into the issue of “What? Why??” You have to make decisions about the skills you include and what they encompass, and often the reasoning for such decisions can feel esoteric to an outside observer. An incredible example of this can be found within Cyberpunk 2020’s “Interrogation” skill. How does one normally go about interrogating someone? I would assume through a coercion of sorts, promising to give someone what they want or take away what they have, right? Now, that sounds like a combination of Human Perception (used to figure out what will impact them the most) and Persuasion or Intimidation (respectively). So why is Interrogation its own skill? I could not tell you for the life of me. This is the issue, if you go too specific while still having more generalized skills, you’ll get noticeable overlaps over and over again, and any attempt to list everything humans can be good at is bound to have a few generalized points on that list. Skill list based games are always playing this balancing game between overly-general and overly-specific with every skill, and they’re bound to mess up eventually.

So, if the problem is balancing the overly-general with the overly-specific, why not use a combination of general attributes to create specific interactions? This lead me back to where it all started: Modiphius’ Dishonored RPG. The Dishonored RPG uses a set of Skills (which define what you’re doing) and Styles (which define how you’re doing that thing) which combine to form your Target Number on a check (e.g. You decide to try stalling for time by telling the enemy your full plan from start to finish, hopefully giving your allies enough time to see it through and rescue you. That would be a check to Talk Boldly). To those who have read FATE Accelerated, Styles should look familiar. This manages to maintain the narrative aspect of interaction, cover all circumstances, and avoid the over-specificity that makes long skill-lists kinda clunky . . . well, if well-implemented, that is.

See, I have two big problems with the Dishonored RPG’s approach to this kind of task resolution:

It’s attached to Modiphius’ design limiting 2d20 system, which pisses me off INFINITELY!

It runs back into the specificity issue we discussed earlier, although to a far lesser extent.

Dice and Differentiation

For those that don’t know, 2d20 is TTRPG publisher Modiphius’ mainline, in-house system that they’ve used for basically every licensed RPG that they’ve made. It’s a dicepool system that uses a combination of some Attribute and Skill to form the Target Number that a d20 must roll under in order to produce a success. In each 2d20 system minor alterations are made to the foundation to flavor it for the specific IP being represented, but it’s still a copy-paste dice system and therefore nothing too substantial can be changed.

Here’s the issue: I think that they struck GOLD when combining Skill proficiency with Style of approach. You can achieve almost any specific solution to solving a problem in this framework, it’s absolutely brilliant—but they missed out by having them both act as a numerical bonus toward the same Target Number. These two attribute pools (as I will be calling them) represent completely different concepts, far more so than in most of their other games, which tend to have one acting as a subsidiary of the other rather than combining to form something new.

It was a specific goal of mine to have the equivalents of these two attribute pools be mechanically differentiated in Footfall’s task resolution system. The easiest way to do that seemed, to me, to be that one should impact the dice rolled and the other should be a flat bonus to the die roll. After that it was pretty easy to figure out which was which, it just makes sense for one’s proficiency in an area of skill to provide consistency.

Finally, I had to actually decide on the mechanical feature of the Style equivalent. A dice mechanic. I knew I wanted it to be a bit swingy, after all your Skill acts as your minimum, the die should be there to increase your maximum. Because of that same little piece of design, which had wriggled its way into my brain unprompted, I also knew I didn’t want it to be a dicepool (as much as I love them). Somewhat swingy, with variety, and increasing maximum rolls as determined by the die and the bonus? Why, that sounds like a variation on the dice mechanic of Jon Gilmour’s Kids on Bikes! Yeah, that works.

Two attribute pools, one representing character proficiency and the other being approach; character proficiency provides a flat bonus to the die roll, while approach determines how large the die is (on a scale of 1d4 to 1d12, excepting exceptional circumstances). It works, and it works well.

But there’s still that second issue to take care of

6 and 6

The two attribute pools in Modiphius’ Dishonored RPG both consist of 6 attributes. This is too many, for both of them. To explain what I mean, I have reproduced them both in full:

Skills:

Fight

Move

Study

Survive

Talk

Tinker

Styles:

Boldly

Carefully

Cleverly

Forcefully

Quietly

Swiftly

Do you see the issue here? The useless stats that make literally no sense? I’m sorry for ragging on you, Modiphius, but this one hurts.

Survive isn’t a real skill. Survive is almost always an overly specific form of either Move or Fight, and as such should be erased and rolled into them. The only reason it exists normally is to inform your stress track, making it the functional equivalent of D&D’s Constitution ability score. It’s getting cut.

Study is also overly specific and feels like it’s only there to learn information to help with Tinker, or maybe Talk in the case of a psychiatrist. If defined further as any means of gathering information, it’s even further stepping on the toes of Move (interacting with and spotting minute details within your environment), Talk and Tinker. Either way, erase it and roll its function into them.

Quietly isn’t a real Style. I’m sorry, it just isn’t. If I’m trying to Move Quietly, y’know what I’m actually doing? I’m moving Carefully so as to avoid making noise! Quiet makes absolutely no sense to me, and the only reason I can think that anyone would ever bother even trying to include it is as a stealth catch-all, which would actively make the game less interesting. Fuck you, it’s getting erased.

This leaves us with 4 distinct Skill equivalents (Fight, Move, Talk, and Tinker) and 5 distinct Style equivalents (Bold, Careful, Clever, Forceful, Swift). This leaves us just enough Style equivalents to work for the 5 dice we’ll be using, and a total of 20 different possible combinations of rolls.

Putting It Together

Alright, long walk for a short drink of water, but here ya go! The task resolution / dice mechanic as it appears in Footfall:

Each character has four Skills and five Temperaments. When asked to roll a check, the player will describe how they are performing the action then the Watchman will tell that player which Skill and Temperament is applicable to that description (e.g. “I’m gonna wait until I’m sure the guards have turned around, then slowly make my way across the room as silently as possible.” “Alright, that would be a Careful Move check”).

After the Watchman and player agree on the Temperament and Skill, the player rolls a die determined by the Temperament used (1d4 through 1d12) and adds a numerical score determined by which Skill is being used (+1 through a maximum of +10 unless stated otherwise) to the result. If the total result matches or exceeds a Difficulty set by the Watchman, the character succeeds.

- Skills -

Skills are aptitudes for particular tasks and represent a degree of knowledge and experience held by the character in the associated subject. Following is a list and brief description of each Skill:

Fight - Governs your knowledge of and ability to participate in violence.

Move - Governs your awareness of and ability to navigate your environment.

Talk - Governs your ability to understand people and navigate conversation.

Tinker - Governs your ability to repair, understand, and use technology and the arcane arts.

- Temperaments -

Temperaments are specific approaches to performing tasks and solving problems, and tend to speak to a character’s mentality and personality. Following is a list and brief description of each Temperament:

Bold - Brash, brazen, and passionately.

Careful - Quiet, tactful, and precisely.

Clever - Intelligent, calculated, and creatively.

Forceful - Blunt, direct, and violently.

Swift - Quick, abrupt, and instinctively.

Conclusion

I honestly want to keep talking about the mechanics that surround and interact with dice, but I think over 2000 words might be pushing my luck.

There’s a lot of talk online about what makes a good dice mechanic—probability curves, predictability, the feeling of making a roll—I’m not really smart enough to talk about those things. Hell, I couldn't even tell you what makes a good Task Resolution mechanic. What I can tell you is this: You can learn a lot from those who came before.

I talk quite a bit about disliking 2d20 in this blog post, and my disappointment with the Dishonored RPG is partially what compelled me to make Footfall, but the core of its Task Resolution encourages mechanical characterization in such an incredibly interesting way. For all the flaws I found and decided to fix in my run around, I probably would've never caught those if I were the one to create the first draft. Even then, I kept what made it interesting and combined it with other sources of inspiration to create a Task Resolution mechanic that's wholly my own.

My point is that you can always learn something, even from the things that you hate—whether that be a brilliant piece of design hiding amongst a million little mistakes, or how to avoid making those same mistakes yourself.

Self Promotion

Hey y'all. Thanks for sticking with me through this one, I know it was long . . . and maybe a bit rambling. That being said, we're done with dice mechanics (for right now)! Which means that I can finally talk about Stealth mechanics in the next post.

If you wanna check out my other games, and get updated when the Footfall free playtest goes live, follow me on Itch.io! If you're just looking for more Footfall status updates, or want to have an impact on the design, you can always join my public Discord (which is where I post all of the pre-public playtest changelogs). If you want more devlogs, and more rpg design talk, follow me here or on twitter.

Either way, I hope you have a great night and a great day.

[lapetitemortarts]

Joyce Lee es natural de Seúl, Corea. Se especializó en literatura y lengua inglesas en la universidad y trabajó en aerolíneas durante varios años antes de decidir seguir su verdadera pasión como artista y volver a la escuela de arte. Se licenció en Bellas Artes en la Universidad Nacional de Seúl. Joyce prefiere trabajar con acuarelas, acrílicos y lápices, y le gusta explorar los aspectos humanistas (y a veces humorísticos) del amor y las relaciones a través del simbolismo del cuerpo humano. Ha realizado obras para:

"Playboy magazine US "Lionsgate Movie & Entertaiment US", "Numero magazine Berlin", "Carvendish music UK", "LG Corporation, Corea "FIAT Motors, Corea "Planning to Rock" "Camo (cantante y rapero coreano)" "CloeCouture" "Revista Carnale, Italia" "Djuce Wines" "Taschen(Colaborador)" "Revista HardCOPY, Reino Unido"

entre otras.

Exposiciones:

"Todo menos el fregadero de la cocina Exposición colectiva en la galería La Luz de Jesus, LA, US 2020

"Celabrate Exposición de 4 mujeres artistas en la galería La Luz de Jesus, LA, US 2021

"Emerging to established" Exposición colectiva anual en la galería Krause, NYC, US 2021

"Chuhwajeon Exposición individual en la galería Moowoosoo, Seúl, Corea 2022

"Haciendo historia una celebración de mujeres artistas" Galería Krause, NYC, EE.UU. 2024

English

Joyce Lee is a native of Seoul, Korea. She majored in English literature & language at university and worked for airlines for several years before deciding to follow her true passion as an artist and return to art school. She got BFA degree at "Seoul National University". Joyce prefers to work with watercolors, acrylic and pencils and she enjoys exploring the humanistic (and sometimes humorous) aspects of love and relationship through the symbolism of the human body. She has previously done artworks for

"Playboy magazine US", "Lionsgate Movie & Entertaiment US", "Numero magazine Berlin", "Carvendish music UK", "LG Corporation, Korea" "FIAT Motors, Korea" "Planning to Rock" "Camo (Korean singer/rapper)" "CloeCouture" "Carnale magazine, Italy" "Djuce Wines" "Taschen(Contributor)" "HardCOPY magazine, UK"

and among others.

Exhibition

“Everything But The Kitchen Sink” Group show at La Luz de Jesus gallery, LA, US 2020

“Celabrate” 4 women artists' show at La Luz de Jesus gallery, LA, US 2021

“Emerging to established” Annual group show at Krause Gallery, NYC, US 2021

"Chuhwajeon" Solo show at Moowoosoo gallery, Seoul, Korea 2022

"Making history a celebration of women artists" Krause Gallery, NYC, US 2024

[bomberqueen17]

car etc update

I have driven so many cars. I'll witter on about them behind the cut but first I have to share a brief story of Reno the cat.

This morning Reno the cat was out by the greenhouse as I came in to stop at the house for breakfast. He was staring nobly off into the distance, no brain cell in his head whatsoever, just wind whistling between his ears.

A bit later, I'd had breakfast and was getting myself together to do some work today (which I promise I'm doing I'm just taking a Tumblr break, the first this week basically, so there), and I saw him sitting on the shelf at the porch window, staring in. Ah, I thought, he wants to come inside, because that is often how he signals that. So I went over to the door, and opened it.

He saw me and meowed excitedly, and clumsily made his way down off the shelf, which he doesn't know how to do gracefully. I stood waiting with the door open because this is the only thing one can really do, or Reno will get too confused to come in.

As he made it to the door, his sister Whiskey had clearly had enough; she also likes to go in and out the door and needs it held open a long time so she can stare through it and make her decision. The two of them share a brain cell and she usually has it. it's not a very bright brain cell. She shot out the door precisely as he was about to come in it.

This distracted him so much he turned around and followed her, which made her hiss at him and run away, and he could not help but chase her. I yelled his name and he stopped and then saw me and remembered he had wanted to come in the door. I called his name and he finally came in the door. I let go of the door, which has one of those pneumatic soft-closer thingies on it, so it mostly shut behind him but then bounced back open to hiss shut softer.

As it bounced back open, he turned and ran back out the door.

Cats.

[image description: the garden, through the large metal mesh of the deer fence, in a sea of dewy green grass and plants with some distant trees in the background, and in the foreground is a cinder block counterweighting the planting bench canopy to keep the wind from catching it, and a white cat litter bucket in the mid-ground (presumably with transplanting supplies in it); just beyond the legs of the planting bench, Reno the cat, who is gray and white, is sitting upright looking the other way, ears cocked forward as he gazes out over the garden.]

Anyway, cars--

I have now test-driven a Honda HR-V, a Subaru Forester, a Jeep Compass, a Jeep Renegade, a Nissan Kicks, a Volkswagen Taos, a Mazda CX-30 and a Mazda CX-5. And then I also drove a Subaru Outback, a 2020 Limited trim package that's now crossed the US several times and has had a young man intermittently living in it for some time, and said young man (who works here) was excited to tell me all about it and show me the Steering Assist which I can't deny would be pretty sweet if I was driving across the entire country.

Of those, the only interesting ones were the Subaru Forester and the Jeep Renegade. The Renegade is a Fiat really, made in Italy, and the thing I liked about it was super dumb-- it's so boxy and upright that the driver's seat is intensely vertical, your legs are really under you and you're sitting up high but with plenty of headspace, so it's sort of vaugely like a Wrangler only not quite so punishingly uncomfortable to handle, and it looks like a fucking Lego toy car but I tell you what I bet that four wheel drive is pretty sweet. Also 9.7 inches of ground clearance, hard to argue with.

The others were all fine, really, and the Mazda CX-5 downright pleasant-- good balance of cargo and headspace with reasonable fuel economy, good adjustability, friendly technology though a lot of that is probably just that Dude has been driving a Mazda since 2016 or so and as the passenger I've had to learn to navigate the technology. (M-L was excited that the star button might take you to space-- no, it's radio favorites-- and the paper airplane might be messages? no, it's navigation.)

I have a terrible feeling that for all my diligence and research I'm still going to wind up back in a fucking Subaru. I did get the scoop on the local dealership, a friend of M-Ls has a 4-year old Forester that she loves from that dealership which she hates despite it having almost the same last name as her. (One letter different. You'd think you could leverage that into them being nice to you. Guess not.)

I'm taking the Amtrak this weekend out to Rochester and it's going to be incredibly complicated to get back home. I looked at my schedule-- I'd been vaguely thinking I had two weeks off in a row coming up but i do not so either I'm going to take the Amtrak a whole lot over the next month and a half or I'd better just buy a fucking car. Blargh.

I haven't tried Kia or Hyundai and I missed Toyota because the Nissan guy wasted so much of my time (he was very clearly waiting for a specific car to come back from being test driven but not saying so, and finally M-L was like "genuinely we do not care what color" so he was like ok and went and got the one of the two other ones and then was like "there's no gas in this we gotta go get gas" arghhh anyway) that the Toyota dealership closed. I also have a dodge hornet on the list but they were all in the shop, which is weird. ("Naw there's some check engine light issue they all need a software reset over," said the guy, and i was like what does that mean and will that happen after i buy them, but he was like "don't worry about it" and we drove jeeps instead so okay?) And there's a couple of chevys and a ford and i'm really tired.

I've actually liked most of the sales people so that's been fun. We did genuinely shock the Mazda salesman when I admitted to being 44. "I was thinking you were young enough to be my daughter," he said, "but that's how old I am."

None of them have been able to figure out that M-L and I are sisters. M-L reports that occasionally I'll mention my partner having made me a spreadsheet, or that my partner drives a Mazda, and I often will use he pronouns for him, and she's like "I can feel them not looking at me because they'd all assumed I was the wife" which is hilarious. I mean for context we are very, very similar in appearance, similar coloring, similar size and shape, we really do resemble one another, but we have slightly different cheekbones/jaws/face shapes, so we're not identical or anything; we just have an obvious family resemblance. I guess it's not super normal to go car shopping with a sibling but I don't understand why it's so unexpected. As the like, bonus level, often we'll tell stories about Our Mom or Our Dad and we're clearly both telling the story? So I feel like it shouldn't be such a shock.

Anyway.

I'll be mildly annoyed if I wind up just buying the second goddamned car i test drove but on the other hand at least i'll know I bought it on purpose.

[darkmaga-retard]

Of all the dangers that threaten the global financial system, the one most likely to topple it is the US Government’s debt trap. This article explains how and why it is becoming inevitable

By Alasdair Macleod

MacleodFinance Substack

August 30, 2024

According to the US Government, its debt stands at $35.210 trillion having grown 57% in the last five years. As the chart below shows, there was a big step up in early 2020 due to Covid. But subsequent attempts to control the deficit and therefore indebtedness have been absent.

This article looks at the dollar’s debt trap, which despite being the greatest threat to the entire fiat currency based monetary system has attracted little notice from the financial media and investment commentators. Furthermore, the mechanics of a debt trap are poorly understood. It is timely, because with signs of America’s economy slowing down and formally reliable recession indicators such as the Sahm rule being triggered, the Keynesian response is for the government to increase spending to support the economy.

The US Government’s debt to GDP is already at 130%, a record. In the wake of WW2 it stood at a high of 119%, falling to 31% by 1974. That the 1946 peak is now surpassed by excessive peacetime spending goes generally unremarked.

There was certainly more spending control in the three post-war decades. Nevertheless, Federal Government debt rose by 41% while GDP grew by 240% and the debt-to-GDP ratio fell.

Mainstream economists miss the crucial point, which is that excess government spending (the budget deficits totalled $144 billion between 1969—1974) did not lead to prices rising sharply. The reason is simple: the Bretton Woods gold standard stabilised CPI prices which increased on average by about 2% annually between 1948—1970. But something had to give, and the disparity between government deficits and price stability led to the erosion of US gold reserves, finally reaching a crisis in the late 1960s when the London gold pool was established and failed. Finally, in August 1971 the Bretton Woods arrangement was abandoned along with all anchors to the fiat dollar’s value.