Sermil and the Banter of Randomness: Random Banter #228

[DataNinja]

Well I mean.. you're not wrong.. I'm just a non-binary magical reptile...

Aw, man. There are never enough code-based beings around. Too much non-binary.

[Anonymouswizard]

Have you ever corrected them by saying that you're not a woman?

Because I might be a woman?

Aw, man. There are never enough code-based beings around. Too much non-binary.

Have you tried using more than one bit for gender?

[DataNinja]

Have you tried using more than one bit for gender?

Why of course, why wouldn't I? Geez, it feels like those people asking how we deal with paradoxes all over again. Consisting of binary doesn't mean we can't count to 10.

(More seriously, I do apologize if I caused offense, awkwardness, or discomfort here. It certainly wasn't my intent, I'm supportive of peoples' identities, and I very much don't want to make people feel like they're the butt of a joke or anything. I just felt the need to pounce on the binary code joke.)

[Fyraltari]

The complete lack of moral complexity, because Sauron is just evil with no other features and because the orcs are born evil so it's OK to kill them

Boromir, Denethor, Saruman, hell, even Theoden (sort of) say hi.
Hell, add in the rest of the legendarium and I can throw Thorin, Thranduil, all of the Fëanorians, Eöl, Hùrin, Tùrin, Mîm, most people Tùrin interact with and even Galadriel. And I wouldn’t be done. Just because Tolkien has some pitch-black (and even then...) and pure white (and even then...) characters doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of gray to go around.

Categorizing LOTR as one extremely long book honestly makes the comparison worse in Earthsea's favour. The LOTR books are dense and bloated in ways that any editor would be able to point out as being "eeeh". Consolidating all three books as one large mega-book makes all of the problems LOTR DOES have come off as way, way worse.

To each his own, I like LOTR better as the own book it’s supposed to be personally.

I've just kind of assumed that you were a magical reptile.

Alright, but did you assume any magical reptile bits and if so, which ones ?

[Peelee]

Alright, but did you assume any magical reptile bits and if so, which ones ?

I probably assumed a cloaca.

To each his own, I like LOTR better as the own book it’s supposed to be personally.

Eh, sequels are rarely as good as the originals.

[Insane Jeenyus]

Why of course, why wouldn't I? Geez, it feels like those people asking how we deal with paradoxes all over again.

gosh, that's like de ja voux all over again!

Consisting of binary doesn't mean we can't count to 10.

I like counting bina-decimal, personally.

on an aside, a quick step to the unisex restroom conversation, has any one heard of using a pee cup for the urinals?

[Bartmanhomer]

Because I might be a woman?

Yes. That's what I'm trying to say.

[BisectedBrioche]

I didn't know that you were non-binary. I always thought that you were a guy. Interesting.

"I thought you were a guy."

"Most guys do."

[Fyraltari]

I probably assumed a cloaca.

Eh, sequels are rarely as good as the originals.

The New Shadow had promises, but it’s clear the Professor’s heart wasn’t in it.

gosh, that's like de ja voux all over again!

*glare*

[Cazero]

*glare*

You have a problem with Viscount Jared de Voux, Ja for his friends, time traveller extraordinaire and paradoxes afficionado?
Yes, I just made that up.

[Fyraltari]

You have a problem with Viscount Jared de Voux, Ja for his friends, time traveller extraordinaire and paradoxes afficionado?
Yes, I just made that up.

That would be Ja de Voux, unfortunately for your joke.

[Tvtyrant]

You have a problem with Viscount Jared de Voux, Ja for his friends, time traveller extraordinaire and paradoxes afficionado?
Yes, I just made that up.

The voux is always great from his villa.

[Cazero]

That would be Ja de Voux, unfortunately for your joke.

That's the proper way to say it yes, but those silly english speakers always mess it up because of the idiom.
And he got his name from the idiom. Grandfather paradox !

[DataNinja]

"I thought you were a guy."

"Most guys do."

Sounds about right, yep.
(I've had a few infuriating people who've insisted that they won't even try to remember that I'm a girl and'll they'll just call everyone 'he'. )

[Fyraltari]

That's the proper way to say it yes, but those silly english speakers always mess it up because of the idiom.
And he got his name from the idiom. Grandfather paradox !

That’s not even how it’s pronounced. Twice!

[Cazero]

That’s not even how it’s pronounced. Twice!

Exactly !
Is it a joke if I'm the only one to find it funny?

[SZbNAhL]

Is it a joke if I'm the only one to find it funny?

That's how most of my jokes work.

[Anonymouswizard]

Sounds about right, yep.
(I've had a few infuriating people who've insisted that they won't even try to remember that I'm a girl and'll they'll just call everyone 'he'. )

Ever s people started to compassion to me about only being one person (Although I was using a traditionally singular pronoun) I've started trying to intentionally default to she.

[DataNinja]

Ever s people started to compassion to me about only being one person (Although I was using a traditionally singular pronoun) I've started trying to intentionally default to she.

That's just reminding me that my players in some of my tabletop groups were poking light-hearted fun at me for lacking significant male representation, because I tend to default new characters to being a woman if there's no particular inspiration to do otherwise. Oops. XD

[Peelee]

Twice!

So you're saying it's like déjà vu?

[Aotrs Commander]

So. Today was going to be the day I made a big, huge song-and-dance, all the works release of the Aotrs starfleet - complete with also posting the massive quantity of lore that accompanies the release on the Playground, because dammit, I have literally put heart and soul into said project, a project I have been working on for, ooh, twenty-five years.

I spend a day this week just polishing it up, having spent a ghood day or two last week writing it - and this is just the first part of a good many - putting the considerable-effort line-renders of the ship all neatly into the test and formatting it and then doing a test-paste into the notes and realising that was a completely wasted effort and I'd have to do some reformatting anyway.



And fully in the knowledge that it was likely going to go down like a lead balloon. Screaming into the void again. But as me and Dad did our walk today, I decided how I was going to to it, make huge deal about as much as I could on the basis that if I can't make people care about the thing that absolutely is quinessentially the most me thing that can possibly exist, then I really just might as well give up completely; but damn it if I wasn't going to make the absolute best job of doing I possibly could, up and including paying for Facebook adverts.



And now I can't.



Because Facebook has arbitarily decided that you cannot post notes any more, apparently.

Without, of course, any notification.

And, of course, the regular Facebook post is UTTERLY inadequate for any useful purpose (it's bad enough for a regular release), lacking even the most basic of formatting options.




I have of course sent them a polite but EXTREMELY sharp complaint, on the basis that this is costing me - and them - money, as how as a small business am I expected to take them seriously if they pull this kind of crap.



And the reality of it is that I simply do not have an alterative, given that as I completely lack the ability to create a website (or the money to pay someone with ability to do it for me).

So I don't even know what I can do.



I'm afraid I cannot civilly express how angry I am.

[Anonymouswizard]

That's just reminding me that my players in some of my tabletop groups were poking light-hearted fun at me for lacking significant male representation, because I tend to default new characters to being a woman if there's no particular inspiration to do otherwise. Oops. XD

That's fine, I used to do the terrible terrible opposite. Plus, you know, as science advances women are going to be less obsolete anyway.

[sktarq]

That's just reminding me that my players in some of my tabletop groups were poking light-hearted fun at me for lacking significant male representation, because I tend to default new characters to being a woman if there's no particular inspiration to do otherwise. Oops. XD

That's fine, I used to do the terrible terrible opposite. [ignore ignore] .

Y'all tried developing semi_random NPC generating tables to help with this? I highly recommend it. Can feed some really good creativity in making the random fit into the world (and off course the tables get tweaked as needed)

Excel with a random integer pull from list on separate sheet is a really good easy way to set these up. (so one sheet is your rack of options each of which pulls randomly from a list a second sheet is just a set of those ists) Can just drop new adjusted lists for things like ethnicity, gender balance (so have a list of 100 say, and the number of lines with "male" equals your chance of a male figure filling the roll...which may be 50 in some situations but more or less in others...plus you can toss in non-binaries and notes as suits your fancy), eye colour, hair, hair style...

[DataNinja]

Y'all tried developing semi_random NPC generating tables to help with this? I highly recommend it. Can feed some really good creativity in making the random fit into the world (and off course the tables get tweaked as needed)

Excel with a random integer pull from list on separate sheet is a really good easy way to set these up. (so one sheet is your rack of options each of which pulls randomly from a list a second sheet is just a set of those ists) Can just drop new adjusted lists for things like ethnicity, gender balance (so have a list of 100 say, and the number of lines with "male" equals your chance of a male figure filling the roll...which may be 50 in some situations but more or less in others...plus you can toss in non-binaries and notes as suits your fancy), eye colour, hair, hair style...

To be fair, they didn't mind, it was just a habit I'd not really realized I'd fallen into, so that lead to some light teasing. I'm more conscientious about mixing things up now.

[Sermil]

Boromir, Denethor, Saruman, hell, even Theoden (sort of) say hi.
Hell, add in the rest of the legendarium and I can throw Thorin, Thranduil, all of the Fëanorians, Eöl, Hùrin, Tùrin, Mîm, most people Tùrin interact with and even Galadriel. And I wouldn’t be done. Just because Tolkien has some pitch-black (and even then...) and pure white (and even then...) characters doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of gray to go around.

I would disagree about Denethor. He's not morally complex, he's just... mistaken. And he failed a willpower save. There's no moral dilemma. He wasn't trying to choose the lesser of two evils, because Sauron is infinitely evil, and any choice that defeats Sauron is automatically lesser of two evils. It's not morals, it's just tactics at that point. (Or, in Denethor's case, willpower to resist the evil.) There's no ambiguity; there's never a point where you go "Ah, I'm sympathetic to his decision to burn his son alive." There's a Wrong thing and a Right thing and that was clearly the Wrong thing to do.

You don't see the lack of moral complexity very clearly when reading, because Tolkien never puts his heroes in a place where tactical / strategic considerations required them to do something "bad". They're almost never in a situation where leaving a friend to die or double-crossing an ally is a tactically better choice but morally reprehensible. (Aragorn letting the Army of Dead go after they just defeat the Corsairs, instead of insisting they help Minas Tirith or stick around until the battle at the Black Gate is the only example I can think of where "doing the Right Thing" and "doing the tactically sensible thing" might be in conflict, and notice Tolkien does that completely off-screen. We don't really know why Aragorn held their oath fulfilled, or if he even could have kept the Army of the Dead longer.)

Ditto Boromir. There's never any doubt that Boromir trying to grab the One Ring is Wrong. He even looks evil when he does it. He even admits he was wrong after he makes his willpower save and comes to his senses. Again, this is about willpower and the ability to resist Sauron / The One Ring's ability to make you take evil actions. It's not about having a moral dilemma. Ditto Saruman and Théoden. (And Frodo at the Cracks of Doom, for that matter.)

Hell, add in the rest of the legendarium and I can throw Thorin, Thranduil, all of the Fëanorians, Eöl, Hùrin, Tùrin, Mîm, most people Tùrin interact with and even Galadriel. And I wouldn’t be done. Just because Tolkien has some pitch-black (and even then...) and pure white (and even then...) characters doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of gray to go around.

I was trying to stick to LOTR, not The Silmarillion and the other works.

[Jasdoif]

That's just reminding me that my players in some of my tabletop groups were poking light-hearted fun at me for lacking significant male representation, because I tend to default new characters to being a woman if there's no particular inspiration to do otherwise.

I thought that was just the natural response to decades of games that equated "no customization" with "male"....Isn't that the whole point of having a choice, being able to choose?

[Anonymouswizard]

I remember once asking the GM to nerf a couple of shapeshifting spells so my transgender wizard (FtM) wouldn't have it easy.

I've since tried to stop playing games with magic as easy as D&D, because I find it makes playing a wizard less fun. Plus because I just don't like Vancian Magic, I don't remember any of the wizards in fantasy books I read as a kid needing to memorise spells, and it annoys me that D&D refuses to move away from it (and likely adopt spell points).

Also wow, I'd forgotten just how powerful wizards in Earthsea are, Ged is easily the equal of a mid level D&D wizard at only his late teens. Although it does make for a great story, as his adversaries are either also as incredibly powerful or unable to be defeated via spellcasting (leading up to A Wizard of Earthsea's great ending).

[LaZodiac]

I remember once asking the GM to nerf a couple of shapeshifting spells so my transgender wizard (FtM) wouldn't have it easy.

I've since tried to stop playing games with magic as easy as D&D, because I find it makes playing a wizard less fun. Plus because I just don't like Vancian Magic, I don't remember any of the wizards in fantasy books I read as a kid needing to memorise spells, and it annoys me that D&D refuses to move away from it (and likely adopt spell points).

Also wow, I'd forgotten just how powerful wizards in Earthsea are, Ged is easily the equal of a mid level D&D wizard at only his late teens. Although it does make for a great story, as his adversaries are either also as incredibly powerful or unable to be defeated via spellcasting (leading up to A Wizard of Earthsea's great ending).

I mean, Vancian casters are called because of an entire prolific series by a writer who coined a system like this. And you could always just play a sorcerer, warlock, or cleric, which might be different enough for you?

Also in a... roundabout way MY setting has vancian casting, in so much as you have to literally prepare the magical circle

That sounds really cool. I should actually read Earthsea... I feel like I HAVE, but I forget it entirely.

[Anonymouswizard]

I mean, Vancian casters are called because of an entire prolific series by a writer who coined a system like this. And you could always just play a sorcerer, warlock, or cleric, which might be different enough for you?

I've read the first two Dying Earth books (but not as a kid), D&D Vancian magic is not like Vance's in many ways, including losing the ability to mess up.

And only Warlocks. Because blargh, Spell Slots, at least warlocks have a good mix of at-will and a small handful of slots (don't even care about their 6+ spells). Or Spell Point Arteficers.

Also in a... roundabout way MY setting has vancian casting, in so much as you have to literally prepare the magical circle

Eh, there's a difference between fire and forget slots and rituals.

That sounds really cool. I should actually read Earthsea... I feel like I HAVE, but I forget it entirely.

Earthsea is amazing. The books have problems, and it in some ways breaks almost every rule of 'so you want to write a protagonist with magic', but it sets up situations where 'we don't know every spell Sparrowhawk can cast' doesn't matter, as Ged's rough limits are shown about a third of a way into the first book and then the books strongly tack into 'wizards avoid magic when they can'.

[Wizard_Lizard]

I probably assumed a cloaca.

No comment.