The sad truth is that there is no way to say right now. I believe, even if by basic statistical probability, that there will be some European nations that are able to avoid sliding to fascism in the coming decade. It’s definitely not going to be Italy, and I’m pretty confident it won’t be the Netherlands. I really can’t imagine a country like France going to fascism, but then Le Pen keeps growing in popularity so who knows.

The point is, it can happen anywhere and can succeed anywhere. The only thing you can do right now is try to prevent it from winning in your country. If that fails, hopefully there’ll be a confirmed safe haven then.

ngl, I look at it the same way I do FromSoft games. “It’s called what now? sorry, it was an Estus Flask in Dark Souls, that’s what it gets called forever.”

Huh, they’re working with someone other than Owlcat. I wonder if that’s just a consequence of Owlcat currently working on Rogue Trader, or if the last few launches of Owlcat games made Paizo want to try a different team.

Or is this just another dev team licensing the ruleset, and it’s a total coincidence that the former director of marketing at Paizo is working with them?

I mean, I’d hate it as well, but I already avoid D&D, and Wizards of the Coast has shown over and over again that they’re more than happy to burn out committed fans in order to chase the potential of new players. Also maybe it’s just the pick-up games that I’ve been in, but playing a creative character is often a huge part of the draw that people come in for. People are becoming aware of TTRPGs through improv comedy clips on TikTok from funny people like Critical Role or Dimension20, and those are the moments they want to emulate.

Nah, you gotta hit people with the nostalgia bait. Sell 3e again as D&D Classic, reusing artwork from 1e, with Minsc & Jaheira on the cover.

I would actually casualize the shit out of it. Streamline combat, make it so that most minor combat encounters end after like 5 turns max. Collapse skills down into like 10 max, maybe even combine two attributes to lower that number. Remove all the component stuff from spells, you can cast a spell as long as you aren’t unconscious. I think the D20 system is too ingrained to change now, but I’d want to try something that’s faster to grok, either by going for a system where you roll under your stat or moving to more D6s. I’d also want to jazz up character building.

Basically, make D&D into actually babby’s first tabletop RPG. It’s currently treated as such, despite being a terrible system for newcomers IMO. Most of the new crowd of TTRPG players I’ve played with want to hangout with friends, do some silly improv bits, maybe have a cool moment where they kill a goblin in a creative way, and go home. D&D is way, way too crunchy for that crowd, they quickly stop paying attention during combat if it drags too long, and nothing drags a game to a halt like one of those players needing to make a check they haven’t “practiced” before. Assuming I’m still trying to do Cynthia’s job of making more money than God, I think that’s the clear way forward, because all the videogames and movies and marketing don’t mean a damn thing if the new people bounce off the ruleset.

US seems to make a lot saving throws regarding the Constitution, so it’s less out of date and more timelessly relevant.

let’s not go crazy here, this story is from Utah. Utah is basically full of religious zealots and has absolutely not progressed socially in the last two decades outside of maybe Salt Lake City.

You gotta remember, there are two Americas. Rural America is closer to a fundamentalist country in the Middle East or Africa.

That’s the thing about stupidity, it has a lot of comorbidities.

I do not trust that Hungary has fair and free elections, so I’d be careful with assuming anything of the will of the people.

I don’t really understand, what measures are okay to use? We certainly want to be coercing developing countries to respect rule of law, have free and fair elections, not committing human rights violations, and economic measures seem to be the most effective, nonviolent way to achieve the desired changes. Is the change just that multiple countries must now agree to a sanctioning action, rather than allowing just one country to impose sanctions? If so, certainly understandable why the superpowers dissented.

I’d hazard a guess that some of that 70% are racist Tories who think he’s not white enough.

Americans get too excited when they read headlines like this. Nobody voted for Rishi, they voted for the Tories what felt like a decade ago. The Tories have had a revolving door policy, and new rubes keep taking the PM position after the last one leaves/is forced out. Some portion of that 70% are Tory voters who just want another spin on the PM wheel.