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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 4h

I see what you did there!

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

I'm just being grumpy and grousin' "These kids need to read a book!"

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

From folks like Jonaya Kemper and Jess Marcrum and Chant Evans and, y'know, everyone who puts something out there to expand the boundaries of gaming and add a little color to the field. So I can't really be mad, b/c we do get some really cool and much-needed new stuff, too.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

Yet at the same time there's so much infectious enthusiasm around new creators coming from spaces that were always tiny fragments of the game community before, and blowing the doors off with microgames or deliberate bleed games or emancipatory games or whatnot.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

I guess coming from an earlier generation of game designers I was already exposed to Stafford, and Hargrave, and Ken Hite and Rebecca Borgstrom and Greg Stolze and Sean Fannon and Cam Banks and Ross Isaacs and Robin Laws and as older stuff fades away ppl wind up reinventing it.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

You look over at academia where there's a whole process of vetting works to make sure you're not just constantly reinventing the wheel with a dissertation, and then you look at gaming where ppl are reinventing dice pools, hero points, asymmetric parties, shared narrative

P. wild!

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

I love seeing new inventions and reinventions in gaming. Ppl trying different things or smashing together new combinations. Less enthused about ppl claiming "this is brand new and has never done before" and it's like they haven't heard the Stafford rule

("Greg Stafford already did it")
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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

Was just ruminating on ppl going "Oh this is just ripped off of this other thing from years ago" and it's like... the thing I referenced is something I did. I expanded on my own material.

Memories in gaming are short

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

For those who do not try to force their power structure on others to try to establish a hierarchy based on their own bigotry using an unprovable, undemonstrable assertion as an excuse, this is a non-issue.

Anyway, I don't generally have qualms about punching up.

Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

There's a rhetorically common technique of calling out power groups with the implicit filter that it will be ignored by those to whom it does not apply.

"Men be like..."
"Can you believe when straights do..."
"Why do conservatives insist..."

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

Evangelical conservatives be like "You can't make me participate in trans people's delusions! Now here are the rules you must follow from my invisible sky fairy."

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 2d

Possible that Jay has an imaginary list of "desired/preferred customers" that includes techbros and millionaires, and that everyone else is chaff, considered a nuisance byproduct of running a big platform to attract money

Or maybe just lying

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 3d

I think we know what they (Jay) want(s)

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 4d

Dang I do not like going to the gym

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 5d

They got what they wanted twofold: They blew up some Venezuelans, and they proved out that the military will follow illegal orders to kill.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 5d

It'll just be another bubble

Houses will sit unused and appreciate in value, and when they do change hands it will just be from one investment company to another

On the books it is a continually-appreciating asset, so line go up forever

Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 5d

Gonna be a fun time when the investorbros finish buying all of the construction companies and imploding them for bonuses, leaving nobody able to build houses in the U.S., and then pop the champagne because the housing scarcity makes the homes they already own more valuable

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 5d

I've noted a couple people arguing that ICE can't possibly keep arresting everyone because it would destroy the labor pool, and it seems that some people have forgotten that the fashy solution to that problem is labor camps

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

Ok but what if me and my pals wanted to do a scenario where each of us plays one hero trying to sneak into an enemy fortification

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

I vaguely recall an interview in which Jeremy Crawford said "When we make entire books full of new rules, nobody uses them." Given the timeframe, feels like he was talking about books like Book of Nine Swords, Weapons of Legacy, and Tome of Magic. But those had other problems!

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

... loses the ability to say "This setting/ruleset has some deep knowledge and you can really dive into it."

People will make those dives (they pick up and try entire new games!) but I guess the marketing says they bounce off too much so it's not something WotC wants to do.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

... but the marketing push is to make it use all of the same books and same rules so that nothing is different. Making new rules very compact so that you don't have to read an entire book is helpful design for DMs, but...

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

I'm right there with you. Having spooky psychic powers that are operating on their own supernatural wavelength helped psionic classes to feel distinctive and like they're occupying their own niche. I feel this is gonna be a bigger problem for DARK SUN, which was designed to feel different...

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

Much like HR, for a great many organizations, safety teams exist to protect the org from lawsuits, not to actually protect minorities from people who have power, money, and influence.

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Jesse Heinig @jesseheinig.bsky.social · 6d

I've done a li'l taste of curating spaces against a-holes while running events and organizations. It is not surprising at all to see people rolling over to those who are considered popular and influential and refusing to even address the harassment that's going on.

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