Asimov wrote a cute sing-songy poem about his approach to sci fi where he summarized the steps as basically "take a fun word from science tabloids and cram it into an allegory"

We respect the need for overcomplication. How else am I supposed to manipulate 12 levers to accomplish the impossible while the hapless GM looks on in wonder? You would insist I ask him permission? Dear reader I am doing this to spite him.

In 5 years it'll be so ingrained you'll see a performance note "no vib" and you'll be like "okay what the fuck this fucking sucks"

The unfortunate reality is sometimes you actually do just have to keep working at it. I'm in music and sometimes I just have to stop teaching a concept for a few minutes and drill it back and forth then send the student home with a "do that 50 times every day for two weeks then it'll make sense"

I've occasionally told students "if you're the kind of artist who can get away with not learning the rules, you'll know because no one will tell you to follow the rules. That in mind, I have some bad news."

Assembling fire mechanics so specifically that I solve some lost equation from 1643 just so my fireball spells are both accurate and require 45 at-the-table minutes to calculate.

Yeah I teach music on the side and oh my goodness it's tough to get through the resilience hurdle.

Also "not succeeding right away means I shouldn't ever bother with this again" is a spiritual pestilence in modern society that I fear has gotten much worse in the last 25 years. I call it the "American Idol Effect" and any teacher will tell you it's a nightmare.

I love to ride the Bad Take Centrifuge at the Worst Carnival In Human History

Noooooooo my misogynist discord dudes didn't even take the escape hatch you gave them.

Also like... maybe its my lack of gender but isn't saving the galaxy good enough? Like that's plenty to feel good why does it have to be like... why strap a whole masculinity thing to it?

This is the kind of thing I would say as a bit right before demonstrating how ill-prepared I am to masculinely save the galaxy

Also: this is the first thing that's made me salivate at the idea of playing Lancer. All other urges have been from curiosity.

I fully believe that the best indicator for the popularity of something is the health and quality of its shitposting community.

I agree. Even Tolkien used words like Monday, January, etc. If a real world phrase fits, it's okay to use. No one cares that there isn't a Champage France in The Lands of Gurdy but I know what champagne is. Bespoke terminology is best when it's for things we don't have here.

Shonen protagonists metagame constantly that's why Frieren is so fucking good.

favorite moment from last night's Cosmic Century Knights

Zad: I've done 11 damage and he's already wounded so if I go high on control I don't need much impact, sorry about metagaming so much.

Me: it's a shonen anime game, if you were a shonen protagonist that would be your inner monologue

Haha man we just ran the first character vignette for Cosmic Century Knights and it is quite sad

Oh thank you, sorry for being hasty.

Maybe I missed a phase in the bullet points conversation, but why have I only seen examples like this involving room descriptions?

Where is the side-by-side on how say a mechanical structure like combat or spellcasting works in prose vs bulleted?

I've also found folks will use stuff like O or C cards which O is like a "hey can I clarify we're not going a weird direction here?" And C is checking in with individuals or the table rather than for yourself. Sometimes there's a big block with the X so it helps to blur the lines a bit.

One thing I've found helps get folks used to the X card is letting them pop it in chat or a DM and invite people to stop play for any reason, even just a simple "hey I forgot how this rule works". I also try to personally slip one in real easy like to normalize pausing play to sort stuff out

Making a custom potion in Fantasy No 1 requires roughly 20 steps, like 6 tables, a tarot deck, a bunch of dice, and an alchemical circle.

But it works.

Every room is telking me something much darker about the single room. The single room is more shocking but it might be as benign as a guy with a wall covered in guitars he never plays like there might be something normal about it?

Every room? No that's villain shit.

[reading a book in first person] i dont remember doing any of this

Yeah fuck it why not. Then we spend 6 seasons of them infiltrating the cartoonishly villainous First Order with the gravitas of the MASH series Finale.

This will be the last surviving tweet. In 3000 years this will be all that's left. They will say it was for ritualistic purposes.

moby-dick, his eyes enormous: from hell's heart you STAB at moby? for hate's sake you spit your last BREATH at moby? oh! oh! the great shroud of the sea for ahab! the great shroud of the sea rolling on as it rolled five thousand years ago!!!!

Yeah you get it you understand

All this so an alchemist can invent a potion that suppresses your cough for three (3) days and also turns your fingertips green after rolling on 18 tables and completing the above alchemical circle.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, first you must invent the universe. - Carl Sagan

I am being devoured by this project.