lawfulgoodness - Tumblr blog

[lawfulgoodness]

"Cut everything that doesn't advance the plot" no. I'm gonna write more stuff that doesn't advance the plot

[lawfulgoodness]

THE QUOTES 😭😭😭

[lawfulgoodness]

What I think: wow I can’t believe the word “hark” means “listen, pay attention” and a major role of the Harkers in the story is to notice important details, record conversations, gather information and otherwise defeat Dracula by listening and paying attention

What I say: my favorite part of Dracula is when the Harkers said “it’s Harkin’ time!” and harked all over the place

[lawfulgoodness]

Morning comrades who wants to see some wacky art deco vehicles

[lawfulgoodness]

i really think we should all outgrow once and for all the idea that a character making a dumb decision is a plot hole. sometimes people are dumb. sometimes a character making a smart and informed decision is the real plot hole

[lawfulgoodness]

Visit NewRetro.Net for A journey to the Past  -

[lawfulgoodness]

Cyberpunk or steampunk

Steampunk.

We already live in a cyberpunk dystopia, at least with steampunk we get cool hats and vests.

[lawfulgoodness]

THE NEVERENDING STORY 1984 • dir. Wolfgang Petersen

[lawfulgoodness]

Feeling normal about Javert and Eponine today

[lawfulgoodness]

"No no, that's ranger hiking. I like hobbit hiking."

when i say i like hiking, i don’t mean “eight mile backpacking trip with special gear and an emergency beacon” sort of hiking, i mean a three mile loop to go look at pretty things and then a huge brunch after.

[lawfulgoodness]

[lawfulgoodness]

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

[lawfulgoodness]

Hey random question (cuz I see u talk a lot about ttrpg mechanics): One mechanic I once saw that I really loved was in the Firefly roleplaying game (based on that Joss Whedon show that FOX canceled after 1 season), I think they called it the Cortex System. Instead of Ability Scores with modifiers, Abilities and skills instead had die types, with d4 on the low end up to like d12, and most actions in the game boil down to (Ability Die) + (Skill Die) + modifiers vs. an opposed skill check. The thing I really liked about it is that skills weren't necessarily tied to a specific attribute. An example the book gives (based on a scene from the show) is when Simon, the ship's doctor, is fighting an Alliance soldier, who is prone. Simon's hands are bound by handcuffs and he's definitely not a strong fighter. However due to his background as a doctor he was able to use his INT die + (whatever the unarmed combat skill was called, I forget) instead of his much lower STR die. Thanks to his knowledge of human anatomy he was able to use a knee to apply pressure to an artery, rendering the soldier unconscious. If you can convince the DM/GM that an attribute/skill combination makes sense, anything goes. I wonder if you know of any other ttrpg with a similar mechanic that you'd recommend.

Oh, I'm also a fan of systems that allow you to combine different pairs of Ability/Attribute and Skill/Talent/whatever! Here's just a few that I think are interesting:

The World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness systems (formerly old World of Darkness and new World of Darkness): Both of these systems have your characters' Attributes and Abilities/Skills measured with their own dot values and the basic resolution mechanic is always dots from Attribute+dots from Ability/Skill (WoD calls its "skill-equivalents" Abilities confusingly, while CoD calls them Skills) to form a dice pool. WoD is more open to the idea of combining any Attribute with any Ability, while CoD has a bit more of a formalized system of Skills being Physical/Mental/Social, but theoretically both systems do allow for combining any Attribute with any Ability/Skill (although it's important to note that for certain subsystems certain pairs of stats are set in stone: firing a gun is always Firearms+Dexterity, but knowing about guns might allow for a Firearms+Intelligence check).

Space Kings: Space Kings is a playing-card based role-playing game where the number of flips you get to make for a check is equal to an Attribute+Skill. Now, I have neither read nor played Space Kings yet, but based on one of my favorite actual play podcasts (Three of Hearts, @threeheartscast) who use Space Kings in a custom setting, the system definitely allows for unorthodox combinations of Attribute+Skill.

Mothership: Mothership is an absolutely fantastic retro sci-fi horror RPG that not only has one of the best visual designs and layouts I've ever seen and a character sheet that actually acts as a flowchart for character creation!!! But anyway, Mothership has skills that are at three different levels of specialization, granting a +10 to +20% bonus on relevant ability checks. But none of the skills are explicitly tied to specific ability scores! You may be able to convince your GM that your Mechanical Repair skill could apply while using a hand welder or laser cutter as a weapon!

If anyone knows of any other systems like this, chime in in the notes. I know for sure there are plenty of these systems out there, but I simply can't remember all of them.

[lawfulgoodness]

james mccrae

[lawfulgoodness]

SWTOR

[lawfulgoodness]

[lawfulgoodness]

Any conspiracy theory about people going missing in National Parks is automatically silly to me. Like "Why are National Parks such a hotbed of disappearances???" because they're full of idiots. You've got thousands of people who've never pissed outdoors in their life wandering around the woods/desert/mountain with zero experience and zero gear and zero understanding that this place can kill them. You don't see as many disappearances in wild areas because people don't go to them unless they have some background knowledge. Whereas you get tour buses full of old folks and suburban families shuttling people into National Parks 365 days a year. If you took the same amount of buffoons and dropped them in the actual wilderness the disappearances would be significantly higher than at the parks. Use your brain.