It’s actually a brilliant monetization model. If you want to use it as is, it’s free, even for large corporate clients.

If you want to get rid of the puppygirls though, that’s when you have to pay.

A really important thing that I find a lot of writers need to learn is that backstory is not character depth. You can write an incredibly deep and complex character without ever telling us anything about their past.

Depth comes from complexity. Complexity is found in contradiction. Real people don’t have some simple set of programming that defines them. This is why I despise the alignment system; it’s basically a textbook for creating uninteresting characters. In real life people often hold complex and contradictory (or seemingly contradictory) ideals. Or they profess one ideal but live out another.

Think about a character who lives by a philosophy of always putting themselves first. Think about all the times they do something for someone else, not even really understanding or accepting that they’re breaking their own rule. Think about why they would do that. That’s character depth. Maybe there’s something in their past that explains why they are that way, but we don’t ever need to know what it is. And in truth, most people can’t be summed up as one or two pivotal events. We’re the sum of every single moment in our lives, all put together in one complex mess of a human being.

Reminder that in Florida “pedophile” means “being trans in public.”

This is about killing queer people, not child sex offenders.

Depends what you want to do with those character sheets.

If you just want a text file that people can paste their character sheet into, this will work: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/taf/ If you want to actually build full custom character sheets, you probably want something more like this: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/universal-tabletop-system/ Or this: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/custom-system-builder/

There’s also a general purpose PbTA system that’s meant to be customised into different PbTA hacks: https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pbta/

I guess in the sense that you have to load some kind of system to play, there’s a requirement to use some sort of plugin, so maybe that’s a dealbreaker. But it’s generally not an issue. While premium content for Foundry exists, it’s mostly in the form of rulebooks and scenarios that have been ported into it by the people who make and sell those games. The actual systems are all free, with literally only one exception (Brambletrek, for some reason).

So, it seems like the plugins don’t really affect you either way then? If you don’t want that added functionality, you’re good to just not use it, right?

Can you help us to understand why the plugins to add games is a problem for you?

Maybe I’m missing your meaning here, but it reads kind of like you’re expecting some kind of situation where a single VTT would somehow support every game system out of the box?

For the record, this might not be a win for the GOP.

The thing about gerrymandering is that you get wins in places you wouldn’t by stealing your safety net from places where your win is assured.

As long as everything goes well, that gives you some extra seats.

But if the math changes - say, because you’re calculating your odds off of a massive swing towards your party from Hispanic voters that has completely evaporated in the year since the election thanks to the president’s horrific immigration enforcement policies - you can end up losing not only the seats you tried to rig in your favour, but also the seats you stole that safety net from.

This is why other states with plans to gerrymander additional seats suddenly suspended those plans after Nov 4th. If things continue the way they are this plan could see the GOP almost wiped out in Texas.

The fact that those words came out of her mouth and she didn’t immediately stop and go “Oh, fuck, I’m the bad guy here” is completely insane. How cooked does your brain have to be for you to even be able to say something like that in the first place?

You seem to have some familiarity with this. Would I be right in surmising that these systems are based on some kind of append only ledger system similar to git?

And Harris saw a massive surge of popularity when Biden first stepped down. When the only thing most people knew about her was that she was a black woman, everyone loved her. It was only when she opened her mouth that her popularity tanked hard.

The rates of rape experienced by trans people suggest you’re entirely wrong about that last part.

It’s only paedophilia if it comes from the pedophile region of Alabama. Otherwise it’s just sparkling ephebophilia.

Thanks, that helps a lot and definitely recontextualises the whole situation. I can still seem some advantage in forcing the GOP to burn their one CR in January, but that’s definitely a much smaller threat than I had previously assumed.

Thanks, that seems to be context I was missing and does change my read on this pretty substantially. Someone else made the same point earlier, but without the specific details about the procedural hows and whys.

That would still force the GOP to burn their one CR for the year in January, which is not nothing, but I can absolutely agree that it’s far less leverage than I’d initially taken it to be.

Interesting. That’s a procedural detail I wasn’t aware of. Is there somewhere I can read up more on that? Why is it specifically that this vote could be filibustered but that one can’t?

After reading more about the deal, it’s actually starting to look pretty smart.

They’re only funding the government until January.

So all the stuff where the Republicans have to bring votes by December isn’t a punt, because the Dems are keeping a loaded gun on the table. If the GOP fail to uphold their side of the deal, they can just shut the government down again, right away, with a clear and obvious justification.

The reality is, actually getting these ACA subsidies extended was never likely to happen. It has to go through a GOP controlled house, and Trump. But by holding out for an agreement to actually put it to a vote, the Dems have put the issue squarely on the GOP. They’re gonna force them to either shoot down their package in the Senate, shoot it down in the House, or have Trump veto it. It’ll fail in one of those ways, mark my words, not it’ll fail in a way that is very obviously the GOP choosing not to stand up for regular Americans. And by extending the issue with the shutdown there’s been enough time for people to start seeing the 2026 rates and really getting a picture of how this is going to hurt.

I think this is a solid win. The subsidies were always doomed, and I don’t think actually extending them was ever the objective. I think the point was to force the GOP to kill them in a very public and obvious way where its clear who is holding the knife. This deal achieves that.

Edit: Strike the above. After understanding some more of the details, it’s not looking nearly as smart as I’d first assumed. Leaving the original up to not ruin the continuity of the thread.

OK, this is starting to make sense.

The deal says “You have to put the ACA subsidies to a vote by December. In return, we’ll fund the government until January.”

So they’re not giving up their leverage, because if the Republicans fuck around the Dems can just slam the brakes on again right away. Meanwhile it puts the ball squarely in the Republicans court to actually do something about this issue that is raising healthcare prices for people all across America. It puts the focus on the Republican controlled House, and on Trump, letting the public really see who is fighting for them and who isn’t.

I know it’s easy to assume that this is another example of Shumer caving (God only knows, he does it so much I’m starting to think his spine is a paper straw), but looking at the details I’m starting to think this is actually a solid play.

The “room for throwing up in” is a myth. It was based on a misunderstanding of the appearance of the term “vomitorium” that cropped up a bunch in Roman texts describing certain structures.

As another user noted, it’s just a large exit door. From the root meaning of vomit; to expel.

This keeps her in the game and gives her an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of her policies on a small scale where differences can often be felt a lot faster. That gives her a much better chance to get back into a position where she’s holding the keys at the federal level down the line.

Take the win, bud.

This article is about Republicans, not Democrats. Yes, I know, it’s crazy that for once the opposition is coming from the enemy camp.