As if the world hasn’t collectively had its head up it’s ass recently…

WotC and AI generated art.

This is my kind of shoulder cat.

The British philosopher R G Collingwood noticed that the painter doesn’t invent painting, and the musician doesn’t invent the musical culture in which they find themselves. And for Collingwood this served to show that no person is fully autonomous, a God-like fount of creativity; we are always to some degree recyclers and samplers and, at our best, participants in something larger than ourselves.

But this should not be taken to show that we become what we are (painters, musicians, speakers) by doing what, for example, LLMs do – ie, merely by getting trained up on large data sets. Humans aren’t trained up. We have experience. We learn.

This is what happens when people try to apply philosophy to science. They get romantic and egotistical. “Oh, humanity, will your wondrous powers of learning ever be duplicated? Not by brutish machines, I daresay. They only do what they are told and learn what is given to them.”

Beautiful.

I hope Al sees this, because I think he’d think it’s hilarious.

And it slaps eternally.

Somehow an improvement to both.

I’m pretty sure there is a KMFDM song for every post-apocalypse.

The Pass Go thing came from a friend of the family that came over for Christmas dinner one year. It went from $100 to $300 once all the properties were bought, and the reason was “so everyone can afford to land on hotel spaces.” So, yeah, completely defeating the point of late stage of the game.

This is it! Everyone I’ve ever met that hates monopoly doesn’t play by the rules. They don’t auction, they put all the money under free parking, and I’ve even had some people that increase the $100 when you pass go once all of the properties are bought. Of course you hate the game, you’ve been playing it wrong.

You say that, but mama_cutthroat is a hard bitch.

The fact that the Arrow-verse got tossed to the side like that is a travesty.

Step 2: Put him in the house that Snyder built.

It would be a lot of fun, and I may do a one shot with it, but right now I have a two-year-old homebrew campaign that takes all of my DM prep time, so it’ll stay on the backburner for a while.

I’ll spoil it for you. The new “King” is a wanna-be evil wizard who is stealing magical artifacts from all over the land, all while trying to establish his own kingdom. He thinks that he can point suspicion elsewhere if he hires someone to look into the murder that he caused, all while setting up his own fiefdom in Cam, but then some out of town adventurers with actual muscle come in and fuck everything up. What follows is the evil wizard trying to frame the heroes for murder while also taking them out without drawing attention to himself. I think at some point there will be a heist, likely before the final battle, where the heroes steal the wizard’s artifacts and then use all of his ill-gotten gains against him.

That’s what I thought of when I was writing that. Knowing TTRPG players, that would all go out the window during session 1 when they decide to befriend the wizard and help him rule.

Before we get too much further into this, I’m gonna stop it. Lemmy isn’t really cut out for long term play, and I have to get to work on my campaign for next week. Peb, Ferro, it’s been a pleasure. May all your twenties be nat.

The king seems a little startled at your sudden declaration. He eyes you up and down, and then clears his throat.

“Ahem. Yes. It seems we have some volunteers, but they seem to be from another kingdom. Surely, one of the fine folk of Cam would readily take up the call?”

No one steps forward. The king seems a little apprehensive, and an insight roll tells you that he seems worried, but you can’t be sure about what.

“Uhh, I see. Very well, then, adventurer. What is your name?”

You arrive in the village of Cam, a small, backwater mudhole sandwiched between three swamps and a long dead forest. It isn’t your first choice, but you are confident that, if nothing else, people won’t give you a second glance as you walk through the gates covered in horseshit and what you hope is someone else’s blood.

However, you are more right than you think. No one is looking at you at all. In fact, you don’t see a soul in the town.

As you wander through the streets, you see the signs of life, but not a person in sight. Then, you hear it–a clamor–coming from the the edge of the westernmost swamp. Rounding the corner of a house of ill repute, you finally catch a glimpse of the townsfolk.

Walking towards them, you pick up on bits of the conversation. A woman, found dead and half-eaten, lies at the edge of the swamp. Any other time, this wouldn’t mean anything to you, but this time it’s different. Shes beautiful, or what’s left of her is. Clad in a beautiful blue gown, a crown–though now crumpled–lays near her porcelain face. She is striking, and it is obvious immediately that she isn’t from this town.

Over the murmur of the crowd, a voice can be heard.

“As the new king of this sad lot, I see that it falls to me to be the hand of the law. Citizens of Cam, your king requests the aid of those of stout body and sharp wit to assist the kingdom in finding out who is responsible for the death of this poor young woman. I promise 50 gold pieces for any information of value, and a full 500 gold for the capture of the nefarious soul responsible.”

500 gold will go a long way to making sure you never have to eat trail rations again, and really, how hard could it be to track down a killer out here in the middle of nowhere?

“Ha, ha! Look at that guy! He ate a candy bar, now he’s gonna die the fat death.”

Go boof some kale, or something.