#mechanic’s tools

[juniemunie]

[Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.]

Hitting a lil' too close to home?

[krk021]

DEWALT 20V MAX Jig Saw, Tool Only (DCS331B) , Yellow.

This 20V MAX* Jig Saw has an all metal, lever-action keyless blade clamp designed for quick and easy blade changes..

Get this item (34%OFF)here>>

[sauleline2]

hi the mechanisms fandom have this gif i made while ignoring a problem.

[doctorsiren]

thinking about ???%…but…but with adult mob :(

[scoobydoodean]

1.01 Pilot

[dailyadventureprompts]

Drafting the Adventure: Dungeons Without Walls

I love the idea of dungeons, but there was a significant portion of my life as a DM where they didn’t feature in my games. While Pathfinder and 5e provided a great framework for character building and tactical skirmishes that I could build story on top of, neither was really great when it came time to detour into a  dungeon. My players tended to get confused when we headed out to plunder the local ruin or cave system, spending a lot more time figuring out where they were and what they should be doing than actually doing anything. 

The problem as it turned out was limited information.  I had a picture of the dungeon in my head/notes but I couldn’t telepathically infer that to the party, and the back and forth questions where they tried to orient themselves within my mental labyrinth ate up a lot of session time prevented us from attaining that snappy pace that every table needs to keep the players invested.

Recently though I had an epiphany about overhauling exploration in d&d, and wrote up a whole post detailing how you could build and run wilderness adventures the same way you could a heist or a murder mystery. Because I was already writing a series about dungeon design it didn’t take long for me to realize that this exploration overhaul was 100% applicable, and could solve a lot of the delay and confusion my players usually faced on their next trip underground.  Spoilers: it worked amazingly.

 The key to this overhaul was giving my players enough information to see the dungeon as a sort of abstract checklist, and then giving them the power to investigate and check things off that list in whatever order they wished, when they enter a new level of the dungeon they get a new checklist to fill out which still keeps that sense of exploration. Folk love checking things off lists, and I as a dungeonmaster love it when players engage with the content I’ve spent so much energy creating even if it’s only poking their head in the door to realize they want to run away as fast as possible. Likewise, designing the dungeon this way let me tackle much larger concepts without having to sweat the details of filling up every little room as I would have to in map-centric design.

To summarize my exploration mechanic as It applies to dungeons:

During Design: After you’ve got the dungeons’ major concept, you divide it into unique “zones” (essentially what might be levels in a regular dungeon) with an interconnected theme, mechanic, or threat.

Each zone has a number of points of interest, which can be anything from trails to follow, odd sights they might investigate, to full complexes of rooms that you’ve mapped out. You don’t need to map out the points of interest otherwise, they sort of float abstractly within the zone 

When players enter a zone, they become aware of its name and general descriptor, as well as how many total points of interest are in that zone. They also become aware of some points of interest immediately to serve as landmarks and give them a direction for their exploration, but most remain undiscovered until they venture off the path and start checking out their surroundings. Hidden among these points of interest are the doors that lead to zones deeper within the dungeon, encouraging the party to explore in order to progress.

During Play: When the players enter the dungeon, one player is appointed as the surveyor, who’s job it is to keep track of the zones, fill out that checklist, and check things off when the DM tells them that they’ve fully explored a point of interest.

Rather than needing to be aware of the exact room layout, the party just need to know what zone they’re in and what options are available to them, Because this information is delivered in the form of a checklist with empty spaces, the party know exactly how much of the dungeon they’ve explored, what’s left to explore, and when they’ve cleared out an area.

Lets take the image above as inspiration. Say the party is trying to make it up to the tower, you can easily see a progression of zones and maybe imagine a few to go alongside them:

Ruins & Foothills: The first area, filled with the remnants of an ancient civilization. Picked over by looters and now a home to all sorts of wildlife,

Mountainside: The obvious next goal, but locked off behind a challenging climb, Filled with hazards that threaten to knock the party back down to the foothills if they’re not careful

Caverns: Secret area accessible only if the party explore a cave on the mountainside, or make a beeline towards the old aqueduct landmark in the foothills, realizing it might be easier than the climb. 

Spire Foundations: The door connecting to the foothills is guarded by a complex puzzle and arcane ward, but the party might be able to sneak in through the caves where erosion has caused a breakthrough into the cellars.

Spire Peak: High among the clouds, the party’s prize is somewhere here.  Access to the upper sections of the tower are guarded by a territorial sphinx under arcane compulsion, though the party might just be able to skip that fight if they figure out the riddle to make the portal mirrors work in the foundations.

Trying to design all this by pencilling it in on a gridmap would take weeks, to say nothing of the headache it’d cause you trying to make things fit together and fill up empty space with content. Designing it first as a sequence of zones and then filling those out with interesting fights, puzzles, and encounters is the work of an afternoon or two. Likewise, its easy on your players: five zones with six to ten points of interest is far easier to tackle when you can make a checklist and see how much progress you’ve made, despite the fact that the area they’re exploring is quite vast. 

I hope you find this as useful as I have, and if you need a more concrete example of how it might work, don’t worry, I’ll have one of those for you in the coming days.

[bassgif]

abella from fear and hunger 2: termina

x x x / x x x / x x x

[d20-ritz-stimzz]

" Your kindness was extremely bizarre, and therefore matters to me more than anything I can say. "

🔩 🔩 🔩 × 🔩 🔧 🔩 × 🔩 🔩 🔩

The Junkmother !

[respectthepetty]

Lost in Translation

I saw this image recently, and instead of hijacking that perfectly good post, I thought it best to write my own.

Because this a very real issue, even when watching a show or movie.

Mostly when it comes to watching queer media that already incorporates a coded language due to the topic.

Many people watching Portrait of a Lady on Fire in another language didn't realize the significance of the final scene between these two because they didn't understand French.

The entire movie, they used the formal form of you basically referring to each other as madam, but at the end, they use informal you, and it shows the intimacy that has developed between them. If you didn't understand French or romance languages, you probably missed it!

It happens often in Asian dramas as well because they use honorifics that don't get translated with the same significance.

These two in Ghost Host, Ghost House skipped over the traditional honorifics and instead opted for you and I. It was important because even when they were fighting, they still saw each other as equals.

This was a big moment in Semantic Error, but if you watched it with just the translation on one streaming platform

You would have missed the urgency of the scene because he finally showed respect for this person and the relationship they had developed.

And often, the translations of colloquialisms (slang or informal language) are literal so context is omitted.

I would pay $$$ for annotated subtitles (like from Viki, depending on the team, Idol Factory does a good job, and Lazy Subber, please come back!) because they explain the context we would miss in the literal translations.

In Thailand black bean is (derogatory) slang for gay sex, so asking if someone wants black beans is coded language.

When Knock asks his girlfriend if she is itchy in Together With Me, if the audience doesn't speak Thai, they understand the flow of the conversation as being logical since Knock's girlfriend just mentioned getting bit by mosquitoes and wanting to go inside. However, the show does a strange sequence that indicates this moment meant something...more.

Because asking if someone is itchy in Thai is asking if they are horny. Knock is asking his girlfriend if she is horny and if that's why she wants to go inside. That's missed in the translation.

This happened in Love Mechanics as well. Vee asks Mark if he wants him to come inside to watch a series. It seems innocent enough, but Mark's reaction is aggressively upset.

It's because this is equivalent to America's Netflix and Chill or Korea's Wanna Eat Ramen?. Vee is asking Mark if he would like to YouTube and Lube. Vee is asking Mark if he wants to have sex! That is missed in the translation.

Big Dragon had this issue with different translations on different streaming platforms in regards to this scene:

Some platforms translated Yai as saying "You're a pain in the ass, really" while others used "You're a pain in the ass, literally." It's a small change, but Mangkorn smiles afterwards because he gets what Yai is saying and is a literal pain in the ass. Yai had to visit a doctor after their first sexual encounter because Mangkorn was so rough it caused Yai pain...in his ass, and they just had sex again.

Language is a cultural tool, so although it incorporates a lot of implied knowledge, it's subtle. If the audience is missing the cultural context, an entire narrative can be easily missed.

This is also the case with intonation aka the rise in pitch when speaking or emphasis on a particular word - Why is this here? vs. Why is this here? - One is asking why this specific item is outside instead of another item, while the second asks why that specific item is outside instead of another location. If we don't know the language, it's hard to decipher when the intonation causes a change in meaning.

So the next time you are watching a series in another language and think the dialogue is lacking, understand it's probably because you don't speak the language. Sometimes the substance is lost in translation.

It's okay, but ask questions, do some research, and try to learn, so the next time someone asks if you want ramen, you can smile and say enthusiastically "YES!"

EDIT - Adding more links from others that show examples:

Extraordinary Attorney Woo - The cat's butler scene

My Engineer - Cool Kid Nickname

English in KinnPorsche as deception

[stimboardboy]

mechanical keyboard fidget toy

[lemongogo]

why do i love the conflict more than anything else . the misery . the incompatibility that spreads like oil slick . wanting so desperately for resolution that never comes . hmmm

[juney-blues]

is the game mechanic bad, or are you just refusing to meet the game on its level and engage with the problems it gives you

(this is about weapon/item durability)

oh you don't like having to constantly find/make new weapons? cry me a river. the game doesn't want you to rely on any one item too much so learn to treat them as disposable and you'll have more fun. no i don't care if you "wish you could get attached" to all the cool weapons you find, you're not *meant* to. meet the game where it is at, please.

this complaint is so stupid to me it's like if people complained about first person shooters having ammo counts because they were used to vertical shooters or whatever

''oh you have to stop shooting every so often because you're out of ammo and need to reload? that's stupid i just want to shoot all the time" yeah idiot, learning to play around not being able to shoot constantly forever, and having gaps where you're vulnerable, is a system the game intends for you to play around to create interesting situations where you have to think about how to use the tools you're given.

crazy how that works huh, crazy how we all understand that.

[katyspersonal]

If you were curious, this song basically sums up everything of why I find Radagon sympathetic (timeline being sometime after the Twins were born)

(Attaching Youtube one with the lyrics just in case)

This is a beautiful song! And no, I agree with your vision that Radagon was not unfeeling nor "divorce selfie" meme when he left Rennala and his children! It is really funny to do all the divorce jokes and exaggerate how much of a bitch he can be for the comedic effect, I love this kind of cruel humour! xD

But in the end, Rennala did charm him enough to opt out for marriage and erasing his war crimes in Liurnia from the collective memory, instead of conquering the continent and erasing Carians instead, right? 🤔 He most likely can and did love her and his children, but he is bound with the problems of divinity as much as Marika if not more, right? Marika is just the latest carrier of Elden Ring, so, Greater Will's vision and Golden Order is just her iteration of it, when previously it were Ancient Dragons!

^^^ @izunias-meme-hole I am bringing your ask to answer here too because I went on this topic's territory here! :p

But Radagon didn't make the Golden Order "manifest" like this, he is Golden Order! His Japanese title is literally 黄金律, ラダゴン ((the) Golden Order, Radagon). His existence is a combination of the divinity and power Marika was given, where Two Fingers were guiding her and her own biases, principles and other things that give Golden Order its "current imperfection"! Let alone the fact that Marika is the dominant alter!

They were both dealing with "caged divinity"! But whereas Marika had the courage to kill herself (or get as close to it as possible, leaving it to Hewg and whoever he helps to maybe find the way to finish this), Radagon clearly liked living more :p And it is hard to blame him because whereas long long time ago Marika was just a traumatised Shaman woman that wished to make a better world where what happened to her village could not happen again, Radagon never existed as such! The divinity and this "better world" is all there was to him!

^^^ All three Mending Runes we get change the Golden Order, and it is no wonder that he is fighting us! At the first glance you'd think it makes no sense; why, if we just want to fix it? Something he himself wanted to do?

But like.. this is the point. :p He is like this because Golden Order is like this. It is not that he is protecting his power and the right to keep oppressing this or that kind of folks like any real world corrupt authority would! He goes beyond, a blend of a 'person' and of a 'concept', and is protecting his existence! Of course he doesn't want to be mended by someone except himself, because then it won't be HIM anymore! It is not that Those Who Live in Death should be condemned or anything- he probably doesn't even have an idea they exist since they appeared after Shattering! It is that Golden Order exists because Death was sealed, and he would get theseus-ship'd if that (or anything else) was changed! As if a law of nature was given the sentence and self-comprehension! I mean it: you won't wish on your worst enemy to be in Marika's OR in his situation!

Greater Will would be content with any Order, it simply created life but wants it to have a coherent form as opposed to primordial chaos!

And it seems like it abandoned everyone over Elden Ring being shattered! I pictured it as Marika shattering the "phone" between the world and itself, but it could've also been a gradual process! Like it seeing that no matter what the new Order doesn't rise from the ruins, nor the former one gets fixed. Maybe it just said "well THIS attempt at creating life with actual rules was a failure, I'll go try again, bye you weeaboo shits" fsdhfdsh The theory about us being an experiment, and a failed one at that that was abandoned by god/gods/aliens/whatever lingers somewhere amongst humanity, and here you can see it manifest.

Nonetheless 1) you'd expect the Two Fingers, its grandchild, to still remember its wishes and wish the same thing and 2) Greater Will possibly was still there long before the Shattering to do this:

I fucking love the "Sorry Rennala, I found someone better than you: myself" jokes and use them at any given chance fhhds But I am just saying, on the serious note, I do not actually think this IS what happened :p. If anything, Marika would be the one to want to hold the Golden Order as close to herself as possible, so it would be kept pure and in contact with the Greater Will like herself! I am considering the idea that she saw something similar to Goldmask's insight, except instead of drastically removing the 'person' from equation (at the time!) she wanted it to be "closer to the stars" for the lack of better term! Back then, maybe it looked like that way, it would never go corrupt, never fail her. After all, regrets and decision to destroy it only came after Godwyn was killed!

And in both cases, it was someone else who wanted Radagon to leave, and nothing really suggests that he was happy or indifferent doing so! He remade the sword Rennala gifted to him to symbolise the change, but nothing says which emotions were behind that process! It could've been any of them, and all interpretations are fair! He had duty to manifest the way things worked even more so than Marika, who at least GOT to live a normal human life long ago, but it doesn't mean he didn't care about how much pain he caused to Rennala in following that duty! On the other hand, bitter irony is that Radagon actually got to live a normal life - with Rennala and the kids! And just like Marika, he experienced leaving it behind to do "bigger" things. It is sad that the cruelty of caged divinity repeated even in her other self! 🤔

____________________

I've side-tracked in validating a more sympathetic reading of him (I just have a dark, immature humour that sometimes poisons my perception of the character on the first glance XD)! There is sadness about him. His one REAL sin is lacking the same courage Marika had, to die so the new, better era begins, but even then this "choice" is made for him when Elden Beast takes his motionless body as its weapon! The territorial aggressions, as well as principles of the Golden Order, are "fault" of Marika's personality as a 'god no better than humans' (which is FAIR), Two Fingers that gave her ideas via broken telephone, and maybe Greater Will in some capacity! "The roots were rotten", so Radagon could also only be rotten!

+ I also think that Radagon came into existence because Marika got cursed during the War with the Giants ( x )! Think of one breaking in two as "defence mechanism", because losing the God itself could not be afforded, however cursing the Order of this God was "fair game"! Marika is a tool of Greater Will to make the order, any order, so the tool could not be ruined yet the tool's creation (the Order) could! So, what if now it is only 90% perfect? Remnants of it are Ulcerated Tree Spirits breathing fire, despite being just malformed Minor Erdtrees! I have a theory that the same happened with Trina, as Miquella came into contact with Frenzied Flame but losing an Empyrean could not be afforded! That comes from the fact this sleep power is conceptual opposite of FF, as well as Torrent having burnt marks, his summon ring already having its part 'drained', him fearing the Abyssal Woods and Miquella being shown to ride in him the Shadow Realm before! It is a long one but you can see where I am going with this!

[ailius-suffers-through-art]

more memo pad doodles

[talos-stims]

designing and building a level one sentry | source

[scoobydoodean]

Dean teaching Sam how to fix the Impala | 3.07 Fresh Blood