DShomshak

Another attempt to deduce the state of intelligent life in the universe based on our not seeing evidence of any other. Um, OK.
 
 
Dean Shomshak

As far as Fuentes' desire for a Christian nationalist dictatorship, the anti-Trump conservative David French recently pointed out that the world's largest avowedly Christian Nation is currently getting the pants beat off it in Ukraine. Putin made Christian Nationalism part of his dictatorship from day one. It's everything Mr Fuentes wants. It's not doing so well.
 
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/the-spiritual-lessons-of-a-christian/
You have to subscribe to read the whole article, though it's free. My sister printed it out for me, so I can summarize Mr French's three "Spiritual Lessons from a Christian Nationalist Military Defeat":
 
* Power corrupts. Not exactly a new observation, but Putin's Russia offers one more example that corrupted, self-serving leadership inevitably hollows out institutions and the country as a whole.
* Christendom dilutes Christianity. French argues that Christian nationalists focus on the collective institutions of the faith, not the "radical personal renewal and redemption that is the heart of Christianity." Putin's invasion of Ukraine was supposedly, in part, to defend Christendom against the Satanic corruption of the West. And their methods for doing so...?
* Brutality isn't strength. "Bullies look strong. They strut and peacock. Russians bomb civilians. They rape women. They loot empty homes. They're ruthless. They make commercials casting themselves as fearless, fearsome warriors. And now they're fleeing by the thousands, thrown into headlong retreat by a far smaller nation, fighting with a fraction of the resources, in one of the most shocking military setbacks in modern times. Brutality is meeting courage, and courage prevails."
 
If Mr Fuentes truly wants to live in a "Christian Nation," well, nobody's stopping him from moving to Putin's Russia. They would seem to be made for each other.
 
Dean Shomshak

As far as Fuentes' desire for a Christian nationalist dictatorship, the anti-Trump conservative David French recently pointed out that the world's largest avowedly Christian Nation is currently getting the pants beat off it in Ukraine. Putin made Christian Nationalism part of his dictatorship from day one. It's everything Mr Fuentes wants. It's not doing so well.
 
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/the-spiritual-lessons-of-a-christian/
You have to subscribe to read the whole article, though it's free. My sister printed it out for me, so I can summarize Mr French's three "Spiritual Lessons from a Christian Nationalist Military Defeat":
 
* Power corrupts. Not exactly a new observation, but Putin's Russia offers one more example that corrupted, self-serving leadership inevitably hollows out institutions and the country as a whole.
* Christendom dilutes Christianity. French argues that Christian nationalists focus on the collective institutions of the faith, not the "radical personal renewal and redemption that is the heart of Christianity." Putin's invasion of Ukraine was supposedly, in part, to defend Christendom against the Satanic corruption of the West. And their methods for doing so...?
* Brutality isn't strength. "Bullies look strong. They strut and peacock. Russians bomb civilians. They rape women. They loot empty homes. They're ruthless. They make commercials casting themselves as fearless, fearsome warriors. And now they're fleeing by the thousands, thrown into headlong retreat by a far smaller nation, fighting with a fraction of the resources, in one of the most shocking military setbacks in modern times. Brutality is meeting courage, and courage prevails."
 
If Mr Fuentes truly wants to live in a "Christian Nation," well, nobody's stopping him from moving to Putin's Russia. They would seem to be made for each other.
 
Dean Shomshak

As far as Fuentes' desire for a Christian nationalist dictatorship, the anti-Trump conservative David French recently pointed out that the world's largest avowedly Christian Nation is currently getting the pants beat off it in Ukraine. Putin made Christian Nationalism part of his dictatorship from day one. It's everything Mr Fuentes wants. It's not doing so well.
 
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/frenchpress/the-spiritual-lessons-of-a-christian/
You have to subscribe to read the whole article, though it's free. My sister printed it out for me, so I can summarize Mr French's three "Spiritual Lessons from a Christian Nationalist Military Defeat":
 
* Power corrupts. Not exactly a new observation, but Putin's Russia offers one more example that corrupted, self-serving leadership inevitably hollows out institutions and the country as a whole.
* Christendom dilutes Christianity. French argues that Christian nationalists focus on the collective institutions of the faith, not the "radical personal renewal and redemption that is the heart of Christianity." Putin's invasion of Ukraine was supposedly, in part, to defend Christendom against the Satanic corruption of the West. And their methods for doing so...?
* Brutality isn't strength. "Bullies look strong. They strut and peacock. Russians bomb civilians. They rape women. They loot empty homes. They're ruthless. They make commercials casting themselves as fearless, fearsome warriors. And now they're fleeing by the thousands, thrown into headlong retreat by a far smaller nation, fighting with a fraction of the resources, in one of the most shocking military setbacks in modern times. Brutality is meeting courage, and courage prevails."
 
If Mr Fuentes truly wants to live in a "Christian Nation," well, nobody's stopping him from moving to Putin's Russia. They would seem to be made for each other.
 
Dean Shomshak

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/nick-fuentes-says-the-results-of-the-2022-elections-prove-why-we-need-a-dictatorship/
 
 

Well, to give Smiley a *bit of* benefit of the doubt, report is only 2/3 of the votes are in.  But AP called it, and reversing a large gap at this point isn't likely.
 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-washington-us-senate.html
 
Note that Smiley's leading in the rural counties, while Murray's crushing it in the big ones.  And judging by the totals and percentages...King County has another 300,000 votes or so to come in.  That's +49...or basically 75-25, or 3 to 1 in Murray's favor right now.  I also find the map interesting, showing how sharp the geographic divide is.
 
I haven't looked exhaustively, but there are at least 3 Republicans coming from the media...Kari Lake was a TV anchor, Tudor Dixon was a streaming anchor, and Mark Ronchetti a TV meteorologist...that ran to be their state's governor.  All 3 lost.

I am not so sure of that.  I happen to live and work in a startlingly liberal area, but go across the Cascades and it ... flips polarity, all along the age pyramid.  I will need to see comprehensive analysis after the shouting is over.  (But that's me: I am a scientist down to the core, and numbers are what I do.)  If the MAGA rhetoric and tactics has started to alienate the 18-to-25 age bloc in ways that shows up in the ballot counts that would delight me, but I am far too wary of wishful thinking to believe it at this point.

Danica mostly seems rather generic and boring (sorry), apart from the Week of Red Blindness. Whatever that was, it's interesting because ir's forcing significant social change... which some people are resisting. Here's your drama; this is worth developing further.
 
LMB addressed the placement of Koy. I'm not even trying to keep track of the geography, so I have no comment on that score. But while the linformation given is necessary, there's nothing very interesting about it. Of course, it may be that there genuinely is nothing very distinctive here. Not every place in the real world is obviously interesting, either.
 
Kerqod has some good social change with the craft guilds supplanting the (mostly dead) aristocracy. Not everyone will be happy with this change, though -- notably whoever's left from the aristocracy, and whoever owed their wealth and status to them -- which is a conflict worth developing. But the city could use something more unusual and distinctive.
 
Ison's pretty good because it's the odd man out, an outpost from a country that's mostly tied to a different region. NBobody's going to trust these guys much, though some people might be cultivating alliances with Ixon against local rivals, on the theory that Faydon has enough power to be a spoiler, but not enough to become locally dominant. Being built/carved into a cliff also makes it "visually" distinctive. And being a Magocracy means visitors can see all sorts of miscellaneous magical coolness.
 
Reuchia is moderately interesting as a collapsed state. Who's making a play for Reuchian territory?
 
Thomar's split between the "official" power elite, convulsed with infighting, and the bureaucracy that actually runs everything, has dramatic potential. But what was the basis of the former ruling class? What are the offices for which people compete? On the other side, how cohesive is the bureaucratic coalition? Is anyone talking about having the high bureaucrats try to sweep away the remnants of the old regime?
 
Diltren: Nothing very interesting or distinctive here.
 
Rasul: Your basic mercantile city, nothing very distinctive here, either.
 
While most of this hits the basic, obligatory marks for Fantasy setting design, a lot of it seems colorless. I don't see much beyond standard tropes. What is unique about each location? It doesn't have to be big or obviously important for adventurers to be memorable for players.
 
(I gather this is based on something published elsewhere? If so, I think you'll have to put a lot more of yourself into it. The setting *will* be better as a result.)
 
Dean Shomshak

The Incas also had no form of money, or even proto-money, according to Goldstein's Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing. The state collected all goods produced, then redistributed them to the populace as it saw fit. Of course, all labor was also centrally planned and compulsory. An "existence proof" that such a society can function. I make no judgement as to whether such a political economy is desirable.
 
They also got by without writing, though the knotted-cord "quipu" were a form of record-keeping to manage all the collection and redistribution. All in all, a good source of inspiration for Fantasy or SF societies that go beyond the standard tropes.
 
Dean Shomshak

...please tell me this is parody...
 
https://gizmodo.com/oculus-founder-palmer-luckey-created-a-vr-headset-that-1849755223

From 2020--For Honor And Democracy!

For a complete guide to human energy use, from the Paleolithic to the present, there's Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization. One thing he finds: Use of past energy sources hasn't declined in real numbers -- only in proportion, as new energy sources have eclipsed them. Thus, humanity gets just as much energy from biomass (burning wood, animal dung, etc.) as a thousand years ago -- it's just that we get so much more from hydro, fossil fuels, etc. We still burn as much coal (or nearly so) as ever, it's just that we also burn increasing amounts of petroleum, with natural gas use still rising.
 
Nuclear is anomalous in its real decline, but it's also very new and so subject to political hiccups. It hasn't been around long enough for the normal pattern to have happened yet.
 
Of course, this pattern will inevitably suffer an enormous exception as stocks of easily recoverable petroleum are exhausted. Coal and natural gas simply take longer, but they too are finite, even without taking climate change into consideration. Smil is not optimistic that civilization can decarbonize quickly enough to do so in a smooth and orderly fasion. The historical record also shows how long technological transitions take, and they aren't quick. The history of Bronze Age deforestation to support copper smelting is also not encouraging. Still, at least we've been told, and some people are trying to manage a speedy transition.
 
Dean Shomshak

Some years back, my FLGS sold novelty soap in the shape of a d20, with an actual d20 at the center of the clear soap. I bought one for a Christmas present for my niece, who counts soapmaking and Pathfinder among her hobbies.
 
Dean Shomshak

Suspicion of the US government is as old as the republic itself, so there's a certain tradition here. But yeah, the 56th time the threat ultimately turns out to be a Sinister Government Agency, whether rogue or sanctioned at the highest levels, that apparently never has to worry about its budget, oversight, public opinion or legal consequence of exposure, well, my eyes roll at the triteness of it all.
 
The Iron Age didn't invent the trope, either, but writers of that time sure leaned into it.
 
Dean Shomshak

A group called Vet the Vote recruits military veterans to serve as poll workers. Many of them have a strong public service ethic; they are trained at learning and following complex and detailed instructions; ...and they don't scare easily.
Vet the Vote encourages veterans to help out with the shortage of election workers : NPR
 
Dean Shomshak

Suspicion of the US government is as old as the republic itself, so there's a certain tradition here. But yeah, the 56th time the threat ultimately turns out to be a Sinister Government Agency, whether rogue or sanctioned at the highest levels, that apparently never has to worry about its budget, oversight, public opinion or legal consequence of exposure, well, my eyes roll at the triteness of it all.
 
The Iron Age didn't invent the trope, either, but writers of that time sure leaned into it.
 
Dean Shomshak

For the God of Commerce, folklore and literature already provide the Goblin Market: the place where you can buy and sell anything. It is always dangerous. For the foolish or greedy, the price that seems right always turns out to be very, very wrong. But sometimes the pure of heart or quick of wit can buy miracles.
 
(You probably don't want to call it the Goblin Market unless your goblyns, for all they seem to be a significant threat to several societies, bear a special connection to the God of Commerce.)
 
Tales differ about the location of the Market. Some say it's an oasis in a desert beyond five mountain ranges. Others say an island surrounded by five whirlpools, and only a blind steersman can find the way. Some say if you toss a coin into a certain well at the dark of the moon, the path to the Market opens before you. And there are many other tales. Are you clever enough to unriddle the clues, or savvy enough to buy the secret from one who truly knows and not be cheated?
 
Dean Shomshak

For the God of Commerce, folklore and literature already provide the Goblin Market: the place where you can buy and sell anything. It is always dangerous. For the foolish or greedy, the price that seems right always turns out to be very, very wrong. But sometimes the pure of heart or quick of wit can buy miracles.
 
(You probably don't want to call it the Goblin Market unless your goblyns, for all they seem to be a significant threat to several societies, bear a special connection to the God of Commerce.)
 
Tales differ about the location of the Market. Some say it's an oasis in a desert beyond five mountain ranges. Others say an island surrounded by five whirlpools, and only a blind steersman can find the way. Some say if you toss a coin into a certain well at the dark of the moon, the path to the Market opens before you. And there are many other tales. Are you clever enough to unriddle the clues, or savvy enough to buy the secret from one who truly knows and not be cheated?
 
Dean Shomshak

Back in my old "Seattle Sentinels" campaign, one of the PCs disguised himself as a villain to make contact with the vampire Lady Twilight (see Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies). We ran it near Hallowe'en, so calling it "Trick or Treat" was inevitable.
 
A year later, as Oct 31 approached again, I ran "Trick or Treat II: The Movie." The Seattle Sentinels agreed be consultants for a movie inspired by some of their adventures. They ran into some loonies who'd been enthralled by Lady Twilight, engaged in a "Scooby-Doo" scam against the movie (they were upset at her portrayal) -- then a pair of real ghosts, including the Haunt (CotN again) in the old house used as a filming location.
 
In my first "Keystone Konjurors" playtest campaign for Ultimate Supermage, the heroes were trapped in a recursive series of horrific dreamworlds by Tappan Arkwright II (Arcane Adversaries), in "Trick or Treat: The Next Generation."
 
The second Keystone Konjurors campaign ended near Christmas. Coincidentally, one of the PCs was pregnant with an infant that was the focus of a plan by Yahweh to escape Heaven. In the simultaneous escape of Yahweh from Heaven and the PCs from Hell, it was obligatory for the hasty EDM to deposit them in Bethlehem, PA.
 
ADDENDUM: I almost forgot: During the second KK campaign, we gamed on Oct 31 but one of the players couldn't make it. So I just did a short, silly fill-in scenario in which the PCs (and Black Fang, who at this time was merged with his human side for a sane and controlled personality, married to a PC, and effectively an NPC hero) decide to crash the Emperor of Babylon's Hallowe'en party. Hijinks ensued and a good time was had by all.
 
Dean Shomshak
 
 

PA State House Candidate Attacked In His Home

In Real Magic, P. E. I. Bonewitz postulated "Cellular Psychokinesis" and Atomic Psychokinesis." Between them, between them they could achieve feats such as psychic surgery, shapeshifting, and, yes, lightning bolts from one's fingers or materializing objects from thin air. Very much the old wine of magic in the new bottle of "psi." At that point, yeah, "Only Mental Powers" becomes meaningless as a Limitation.
 
One of the PCs in my "Avant Guard" campaign has a small VPP. (There's no way I'd allow a PC to have a *large* VPP, after the stories another player told of gaming at MIT where *every* character had a large VPP.) The SFX is Primal Magic: "I tell the Universe what it is and the Universe conforms, with no backchat, because I am a goddess." The Limitation "Only Magic" gets a -1/4 value, and that only because the character must define any feat must be written out in Ancient Sumerian, in terms that would make sense to someone 5000 years ago. So for instance, I allow the character to make an Enhanced Sense to detect anything made from an alien metal... but she needs an actual sample of that metal so the spell becomes "Guide me to more of this substance, whatever it happens to be." It forces the player to think at least a little.
 
Dean Shomshak

Wow, Dionesh D,Souza is just all class, bragging about Republicans "LAUGHING" (his capitalization) about an an assault on an 82-year-old man. Add "respect for elders" as one more traditional conservative value that "conservatives" no longer believe in.
 
And likewise, I'm not even reading the Republican candidate statements in the voters' pamphlets anymore. Anyone who's still willing to associate with a party that embraces such vileness is at least tqacitly endorsing it, no matter what pious statements they make to the press.
 
Dean Shomshak