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We're getting a little offtopic, but this is why I've never liked the "succeed on critical success, fail on critical fumble" rules. A rando is not going to succeed at, say, smithing a sword the first try. Doesn't matter how lucky they get. Aint. Gonna. Happen. And while technically it's possible to critically fail on making a cooking check for a sandwich, I suppose, you aren't going to do it one time in twenty, no.
This is why as a GM I always rolled behind the screen and if the result was completely retarded, ignored it.
 
Wow, someone really got bootyblasted over this. Also, how is this "propaganda"? Its absolutely true and every culture that used lots of slaves gave some privileges over others (in the South you had the house nigger vs field slave dichotomy, the Turks had slave bureaucrats and soldiers etc) which means that slavery wasn't just a long series of whippings and buck breakings.

Oh well, I guess this guy gets more free time to devote to his kickass campaign setting.
It also specifically points out one of the most important aspects of divide-and-conquer rule: you elevate the lowest class with privileges while making them hate the middle. Maybe they don't want to talk about it because of how on the nose it is for modern race politics and its use as a deflection from the ruling class.
 
And while technically it's possible to critically fail on making a cooking check for a sandwich, I suppose, you aren't going to do it one time in twenty, no.
I'm a rules-light person myself. I was once in a game where I dared another character to eat a triple-triple cheeseburger, and the GM tried to make me roll for taking a photo of him, with my phone, trying to fit it in his mouth.

I just said no, I won't, that's stupid, and took the photo. He was clearly over his head and made people roll when he didn't know what else to do, but it still stands out to me as a moment of pure GM stupidity and an exceptional adherence to making things follow a degree of random success/fail. And that perception of 'this thing I'm excellent at I can still mess up a decent amount of the time for no reason' and 'this thing that should be no big deal still has to have an element of failure or success, again for no reason' is why rules-heavy games aren't what I look for. Also, the people attracted to those sorts of games are inevitably not the sort of players I'm looking for either.

Yet I'd still take them over anyone at RPGNet. Rules-lawyers and the dice-obsessed aren't great, but they're still interested in having fun - it's not my kind of fun, but I can go with the flow for a bit. RPGNet posters and especially mods are clear that they prioritise everything being their definition of inclusive, safe and sensitive over the idea that you're playing a game. The GM in my example above took it in stride that I didn't make the roll and moved on. The people on RPGNet are the sort to stew about it, hold it as a grudge, and then try and accuse me of making the gaming space unsafe for them with my reckless disregard for their rules.
 
I'm a rules-light person myself. I was once in a game where I dared another character to eat a triple-triple cheeseburger, and the GM tried to make me roll for taking a photo of him, with my phone, trying to fit it in his mouth
Think of it like this: If you roll a one,"Whoops! Had the lens cap on and I just used the last of the film!"
 
Think of it like this: If you roll a one,"Whoops! Had the lens cap on and I just used the last of the film!"
With a one, it's blurry because I'm using my phone, but I just retake the shot, great roleplaying moment.
With a twenty, what happens, I take a striking image of my friend eating, great work, art gallery ahoy? No, it was stupid. It was an in-character moment that had nothing to do with conflict or plot and trying to have me roll for it is moronic.
 
With a one, it's blurry because I'm using my phone, but I just retake the shot, great roleplaying moment.
With a twenty, what happens, I take a striking image of my friend eating, great work, art gallery ahoy? No, it was stupid. It was an in-character moment that had nothing to do with conflict or plot and trying to have me roll for it is moronic.
If it's a 1, you suddenly realize its a Samsung phone as the battery explodes into your face and your friend is hit with glass shrapnel and the little old lady behind you bursts into flame as the burning lithium lands on her poodle.

On a 20, the waitress gives you a blowjob and you find a diamond tiara on the ground and the President calls you to congradulate you on your new OnlyFans post.

(Am I doing this right?)
 
"There is one rule here at RPG Asylum. Punishment for breaking that rule is a ban. And you know the best thing about our rule ? It's secret, and it changes every hour !"
This is pretty understandable behavior, and was basically inevitable once they reached a certain userbase size. Its human instinct to only care about inclusion when you feel like new blood is a resource, and to care more about enforcement and exclusion and power tripping when new blood feels more like competition. And that happens at certain threshold population sizes, regardless of how "nice" people think they are before their instincts get switched on.

Basically, the seeds of this whole mess may look cultural, but the actual behavior complex kicks in whenever the total "mod clique" exceeds Dunbar's number - which it did around 2006 or so.

You can see the same pattern play out on somethingawful, or any other big board you might care to look at.

Humans simply cant handle systems this big, with emotional feedback loops that are this tight, without going absolutely apeshit.

The "good" boards embrace this, and fold the apeshittery directly into their culture. But they still look just as horrific to outsiders.
 
This is pretty understandable behavior, and was basically inevitable once they reached a certain userbase size. Its human instinct to only care about inclusion when you feel like new blood is a resource, and to care more about enforcement and exclusion and power tripping when new blood feels more like competition. And that happens at certain threshold population sizes, regardless of how "nice" people think they are before their instincts get switched on.

Basically, the seeds of this whole mess may look cultural, but the actual behavior complex kicks in whenever the total "mod clique" exceeds Dunbar's number - which it did around 2006 or so.

You can see the same pattern play out on somethingawful, or any other big board you might care to look at.

Humans simply cant handle systems this big, with emotional feedback loops that are this tight, without going absolutely apeshit.

The "good" boards embrace this, and fold the apeshittery directly into their culture. But they still look just as horrific to outsiders.
"A hugbox, if you can keep it." --Benjatroon Franklin
 
Basically, the seeds of this whole mess may look cultural, but the actual behavior complex kicks in whenever the total "mod clique" exceeds Dunbar's number - which it did around 2006 or so.
The way to avoid this is to have a brutal dictator who has a bloodletting every now and again to remind people who's in charge and not to let mods get too comfortable with the position.
 
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