Rain Dog @Leucrotta@awoo.space

Dear Young America Foundation, please die en masse and leave my country and my fellow citizens in peace. Thanks.

rather than post about a certain person's need to be punched until something breaks loudly and then punched a lot more let's talk about

uh, why are y'all starin' at me?

so 11:30 rolls around, and okay let's start winding things down towards bed, we gotta move fairly early tomorrow AND then me and my friend watch a batch of old videos and now I'm AWAKE!!1! again. Maybe not enough to actually do anything but enough that I'm not sleeping yet.

Important question; if sushi as rolls are basically burritos, are nigiri tacos? And where does this leave hand rolls?

this is getting too serious and sad, here let's have some slightly self effacing humor about responding "CHRISTMASTIME! HEE HEE HEE HEE!" to parts of Danny Elfman's "Spider-man 2" soundtrack

and I'm now thinking of transience, how the random unfairness of the world is its joy as well, the world is changed in ways I couldn't have imagined as a kid so far away and so long ago.

Some of what seems scary is merely unfamiliar and new, what's really scary now was already unbearably old when Reagan was in office, when Isabella expelled my ancestors from Spain, when Duke William starved the north of England into submission.

And while my childhood held joys and wonders that my friends will never know, I will never know what it's like growing up with the internet unfolding or being a teenager posting to DeviantArt and Elfwood, or any number of things; any more than I will now what it's like to sit in wonder at the flickering black and white screen showing the first steps on the moon, hear this new band The Beatles who aren't like anything else I'd heard before, etc etc.

And that's okay too.

if living in the USA now is a little like knowing you'll probably die from cancer, hearing anything about certain people is a little like like getting the biopsy results back. And part of what makes THAT so fearful is the sure knowledge that like a sufficiently advanced cancer, nothing will stop them metastasizing.

And, while I'm trying to remember that if a sort of random and unfair world means what happens to anyone from Raoul Wallenberg to Terry Jones to even someone as crummy as *me* isn't fair, isn't what we truly deserve, the down side of this sort of random unfair world are the Reagans and Mengeles of the world, who die well off and peaceful far from the horrors that surrounded their victims.

the follow up;

The Ring gets me to Queen which

gets me to Flash Gordon which

gets me to TMBG (instead of savior of the universe, get those missiles ready to destroy the universe) which

gets me to The Day the Earth Stood Still which

gets me to Mars Attacks which

gets me to Men in Black

apparently The Ring cycle gets me to I Want to Break Free gets me to Queen gets me to Flash Gordon, which is basically also opera with manly Gay men and valkyries kinda

"The Ride of the Valkyries" has a batch of potential associations and apparently the one my brain has chosen is "Terry Jones, dressed as as somewhat dowdy housewife, leaves her row house and starts walking until somehow she winds up at Stonehenge." The fuck, brain? I don't even remember the rest of that episode, I don't *think* it was the Most Awful Family in Britain episode.

let's see so;

a Jewish American opens YouTube so they can listen to, not just Wagner, but specifically Loren Maazel's "Der Ring Ohne Worte" adaptation. They immediately run into some Young America Foundation bullshit with Ben Shapiro and report it to YT as hate speech.

A truly bizarre level of irony.

Another Luke example of play;

Luke’s flying a damaged snowspeeder; with Dack dead, all he can do is evasives (his full pilot skill plus the speeder’s maneuverability- 2d?- added to AT-AT gunners’ difficulty). Scale chart converts Walker scale damage to Speeder scale and eventually they hit.

Our hero decides to fire a grappling hook into the AT AT, shimmy up the line, open whatever access he can find, pitch a grenade in, and drop to the ground.

Let's say Luke has 7d in Vehicle Blaster, 5d in Climbing/Jumping, 5d in Search, 4d in Grenade. To do all this in a single round(!) he'd roll 6d6 (target number's a bit higher since he's holding a speeder scale weapon), 3d6, 2d6, 1d6, 0d6. These aren't good odds so Luke spends a Force point to even try; now he needs to roll 13d6, 8d6, 7d6, 3d6, 4d6.

Pretty heroic! But on his roll to drop to the ground, he fails to make the target number (let's say making it without injury is 22), and comes close enough that he takes stun damage - enough to knock him out cold for a little bit.

Apologize for not crossposting earlier - things got distracting and I only posted to Bluesky.

My favorite TTRPG ever is West End Games’ Star Wars, OOP but there was a recent anniversary rerelease.

Here’s what I liked;
* no hit points
* d6s are easy to get
* multiple actions
* 2 ways for PCs to get bonuses to actions
* handles combat between a huge variety in size

Here’s what I don’t like;
* skills CAN be arbitrarily assigned under attributes
* especially given what we’ve learned since Jedi powers will need to be heavily house ruled.
* you need a batch of different skills to be an only okay pilot/mechanic, specifically

Let’s get back to why I love this and how to play.

All d6s you roll count towards your target number(s) - anything from 1-5 (very easy) to 31+ (heroic). There’s also a Wild Die - mark or use a different colored d6. Some players HATED this. Roll 1, there’s a complication (Han breaks a branch trying to sneak up on a scout trooper, Lando breaks off the Falcon’s sensor dish). Roll 6, and that’s 6, plus roll again (and potentially again).

You CAN take multiple actions in a round of combat, at -1 die per each action, so you probably won’t be too ambitious; firing a blaster and dodging blaster bolts are pretty standard. F'rex, if I have 5 dice in Blaster and 5 dice in Dodge, I can shoot (4d6) and Dodge (3d6).

Dodging, cover etc increase difficulty to hit a target (f’rex if I roll 3, 2, 5 to dodge, the difficulty number you’re trying to beat at medium range just went from 13 to 23). Strength covers toughness as well, so if you hit, roll damage (eg 4d for a heavy blaster pistol like Han’s) compare it to what the target rolls (str plus armor) and the difference tells you how hurt your target is.

This is true for VEHICLE combat as well. A scale chart converts dodging, firing and damage between character scale all the way up to the Death Star by capping how high you can roll; as a rough way to make a snub fighter shooting at a capital ship, equivalent to a brawl in the cantina.

Next; you have Character Points and Force Points. Character Points are like Karma in Shadowrun, you can spend them to improve skills or attributes, OR spend them for extra dice in play. There’s also Force Points. Most people have 1 Force point, a Force Sensitive has 2 Force points, and spending one DOUBLES every roll that round. Spend one to champion the vulnerable rather than just kicking ass, and the GM awards you a Force Point back. The GM can also OFFER free Force points to use immediately.

Sounds too good to be true? IT IS. Those are Dark Side points, and a PC with more Dark than Light Force points becomes an NPC. Eg; Luke just saw his mentor cut down, and the GM offers a Dark Side point if he strikes out in anger. Luke accepts, and easily mows down approaching stormtroopers.

#drawing today

Okay it’s slow at day job; would all y’all be interested in me blathering about my favorite TTRPG ever?

Man I have NO CLUE why I’m so weepy lately.

this video's sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends and the promotion includes selecting very beautiful models by touching them in the tummy

and all I can think of is the li'l Pilsbury Doughboy HOO HOO! noise

hey it's the music from the part of Matrix Reloaded where Keanu fights that dude