Hah, that is great. You definitely may roll to understand the human condition (within the limits that the GM does as applied to this world).
I'll admit, I was a bit worried that the March for Science could turn out to be a bunch of science enthusiasts congratulating each other on self-perceived moral and/or intellectual superiority. Ahead of the march I noticed science was painted as pure force for good, in large part by erasing the awful things that have been done in the name of science, particularly to marginalized people.
Examples of science that was practically supervillainy: it’s pretty well known that Nazi scientists experimented on those they considered inferior, but maybe lesser known is that also in the 20th century US scientists refused to treat people who didn’t look like this with dangerous diseases in Alabama and even intentionally infected them in Guatemala to conduct pretty similar experiments. Even today women are more at risk of treatment complications and misdiagnosis from being excluded from medical studies and trials. The list of scientists not acting in the best interest of all is much longer (ahem, physicists) and this point in history is not an ideal time to fail to recognize that.
I’ve found scientists, especially physicists, are particularly dangerous in our social biases because we tend to assume we are objective when we are really, really not. This definitely extends to recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups into math-heavy science and tech at all levels. One example: in order to keep its state funding a STEM charter school needed its enrollment diversity numbers to be consistent with its community diversity. (Less than 10% of the study body were kids of color in a city where more than 50% of people are not white.) Some concrete suggestions were made: provide transportation options because some parents don’t have work schedules that allow them to commit to driving their kids to/from school at the same time 5 days a week, or require the acceptance lottery to have population-weighted equal representation from all zip codes, since the city is pretty segregated. Apparently these were ignored in favor of having a ‘tamale night’ to boost interest from Hispanic students (in what is already widely known to be the top quality school in the area). No improvements in accessibility, because "if the parents were really dedicated they'd find a way". Tamale night. True story. This just happened last week, in California, a supposed liberal bastion of diversity.
I’m glad to say I didn’t see much self-congratulation in San Francisco, and particularly not from the march organizers. The demographics of the rally speakers were a much closer reflection of reality than usual; only one out of seven speakers was a cis straight able-bodied white dude, and almost 50% were women. Every one of them emphasized inclusion and diversity within science, both in science/policy goals and who we are fostering to be scientists. It was awesome, and I hope a sign of real change to follow.
Tamale night and making math pink are the result of scientists relying on their own biased life experiences instead of peer-reviewed social and behavioral science data. But now that this movement is directing attention to many decades of persistence it seems like things are changing, maybe even quickly, for the better. Go team human.
==== GM travel advisory ====
I'll be in San Diego tomorrow and Saturday. You can probably still expect at least one GM post a day, evening Pacific.
So, as I wrote in the main thread, I'm kind of stuck in terms of playing Dulae while still interacting with the party.
Kind of an awkward subject, but how do people feel about whats currently going on? I haven't been the best poster recently, but I feel like I'm just waiting for things to happen at this point. My preference at this point would be a "fast forward" where we all describe in PM's to Mikkel what we want to happen and a montage is supplied.
Would this be cramping people's RP style?
We do indeed have some mis-matched pacing in the interlude between resolving this arc and setting up the next.
In my view:
Characters that are probably good to go as soon as they get paid: Cel, Dara (as far as they know at the moment)
Characters that have stuff to do: Xizoh, Dulae, Henri, Alaina
After y'all resolve this arc, Xizoh and Dulae can probably work through what they have on their radar in a couple (longish) post exchanges with the GM. Henri and Alaina's arcs would benefit from a conversation with an NPC. (Same for a couple others who haven't yet discovered that.)
I think it's a good idea for y'all to let me know if you have anything you want to do before going to the military building, as Dulae suggests, and we fast forward to there and resolve the first arc.**
From there some of you will take more real-time than others to be ready to leave. Options:
1) Those that don't have anything to do check back in a few real-time days
2) Those that do have something to do try to get on the forums at about the same time and crank through things in less real-time than that. (I am free starting Sunday.)
3) Carry on as normal (which is effectively #1, but with more checking)
4) Other options?
1 or 3 are probably easiest for all, but I'm willing to do 2 if there's interest.
**We should wait for Cel to have the chance to react before fast-forwarding, and for Alaina to be able to react to that (if she chooses). Otherwise, please ping me any action items you'd like to take care of before getting to the military building and away we shall go, unless there are objections.
I'm likely to do number 1 by default, so I don't miss anything that might be relevant, but I'm good with 1 and 3.
Obviously as someone with "something to do" I would lean somewhere between 2 and 3 - 2 is reasonable for me personally, as cranking out a bunch of posts wouldn't be too much of a problem Sunday (the only time-constraining thing I have that day is a game that night). Theoretically I wouldn't mind doing PMs and then just having it all posted in a single montage, though the Paizo pming system is a little inadequate for that since it doesn't keep all the messages and replies in the same place. Maybe a chat client? Though that may be going to far haha
But I don't think I have anything to do before hitting up the military building, so I should be good for a skip at the very least.
Duly noted both, thanks.
@Henri (or interested others) - There's a chat option on the google maps, though I think it's a group chat and likely not anonymous. I'm up for text chat via google hangout too.
Sorry about my leave, I had to wrap up some stuff for school to ensure I graduate-yay!
I can make three work, but I'm fine with whatever the group decides. Also, roll20 has a chat system that works pretty well for instant purposes.
I'll give roll20 a proper look tomorrow, thanks Xizoh.
Happy early graduation! That must be coming up soon.
May 25th. Our school doesn't offer early graduation sadly.
@Xizoh: Very soon by my standards! New York high school graduations are in late June. (And I think Massachusetts too?)
I'm remiss in my promise to look into roll20 properly (seems like there's a lot here). I hope to do that tomorrow.
Haphazard organization warning: if she is still up for it Henri and I are going to try to find some time (less than an hour or so) to exchange some posts tomorrow (Sunday), via the forums or some other medium before her RL game. Others are welcome to jam too if you like - I expect this plan will become less vague as we go.
@Henri; I should definitely be around by 10am if not before. Let me know when is best, or give me a ping if/when you're ready.
So, that beer ad.
Yup.
To me, three of these people are objectively correct and I struggle to see the benefit of giving the opposing viewpoints a platform.
I feel bad enough for the guy (actor?) dealing with a climate change denier. What do you say to that? You don’t believe scientists, fine, here bro. Have some thermometers and go measure it yourself. Find an error in a satellite data analysis. Critique the ice core results. The world of science is before you.
But oh gods, the other two. How do we justify asking these people to have a ‘nice conversation’ where they defend their own humanity?
The premise is that having a conversation (over a particular brand of beer, of course) bridges differences. Sounds nice. Warm and fuzzy. But depicting the belief that someone’s very identity “is not right” as an alternative to ‘trans people are people’ normalizes dehumanizing views that promote violence and bigotry against trans people. And offering “women need to remember that we need you to have our children” as a viable alternative to ‘women should have equal rights’ (or more accurately, 'all genders and gender expressions should have equal rights') says ‘it’s totally normal to see women as female first and people second’.
I think DiDi Delgado said it best - this commercial “pushes the idea that bigotry, sexism, and transphobia are just differences of opinion that are up for debate, and deserving of civil discourse and equal consideration.”
One of the worst aspects is that it paints the responsibility for carrying the weight of having that conversation with the person who has just been reminded they’re not viewed as deserving of the same human rights.
Urg.
Other thoughts?
News from Mikkel:
No job on the east coast for me (which is just as well - I highly doubt my partner would've been a fan of settling in rural Florida and it probably would've meant the end of PbP GMing, amongst other non-work things).
Last week I gave a really kick ass talk in San Diego, and they want to have me back sometime in the fall. (Sweet.) I saw the Cabrillo National Monument while I was there - highly recommend. Crazy beautiful views and you can see the old gun batteries from WWII. (Dulae would like this.)
And I met Alaina (who is not in fact named Alaina) and I think I improved my Alaina-via-the-interwebs interpretation by at least 50%. (Hey Alaina)
==== GM travel advisory ====
Tomorrow starts a 7-day whirlwind travel tour: L.A. -> Boston -> western Mass -> NY -> [some bouncing between eastern and western Mass] -> Boston -> North Carolina -> L.A.
Days with limited GM posting: tomorrow (Thursday), Monday (May 8th), Wednesday (May 10th). Otherwise it's safe to expect at least one post per day.
I'll be back May 11th and settled for a few weeks, and I hope to get some work done for the next arc on the plane.
*Waves* Hello.
Hey, congratulations! That's really great to hear! Quality of life is so underrated when we look for new work. I'm glad you get to keep a partner content and continue personal life fun stuff.
*Waves* btw Alaina, we're still doing 1/2 expectation value based HP [#1068]. So for the two levels, instead of gaining 11 Alaina gains 5.5 (rounded down) +5.5 (rounded up) +2 +2 = 15
Thanks Cel. It's pretty rare to hear congratulations for *not* getting a job, but in this case I agree, you're quite right. Next life goal: live in the same city as my partner.
Also, LAX has adopted the UK methods of getting through airport security and it is the actual best. Took less than 5 minutes in the usual crush (and people seem strangely happy).
Right, keep forgetting. Although, I'm not understanding the math. How are you getting 5.5?
I'm stuck on trying pick a talent and feat. Any suggestions you guys?
Dulae (who I can confirm is alive) had some thoughts on feats for Dara. More on math when I find my way back to wifi.
I could put some thoughts out there but what kinda direction were you hoping to go with?
ALSO also I just realized this arc / this campaign as a whole doesn't really have a title? Do we like... have something like that? Haha for curiosity's sake, mostly.
Huh, I guess expectation value is a quantum mechanics term, although it's synonymous with expected value in my mind. (If we're on the same page now that I've said 'expected value', feel free to ignore the rest of this.)
The expected value is pretty much the weighted average, or mean, of all possible outcomes. For a fair die all outcomes are equally likely, so we can just do Expected_value = [sum of all possible outcome values]x[probability of rolling any one of those values]
For a d10 the possible outcomes are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, which add up to 55. The probability of rolling any one of the faces of a ten sided die is 1/10. And 55/10 = 5.5.
A useful trick if you don't have a calculator handy: for any distribution of numbers where the values are evenly distributed you can get the mean by taking the average of the lowermost and uppermost values in the distribution (i.e. for a d10 that'd be (1+10)/2 = 5.5)
And we also get the right answer for a d4; (1+4)/2=2.5 and a d6; (1+6)/2=3.5 etc.
If that doesn't make sense, that's on me, not you. (And I want to know about it, so I can try again.)
@Henri - I have a strong (but incomplete) memory that somewhere on the internet I gave the first arc the title 'Adventure in Southtown', but the thread titles don't reflect that. (I will find it...)
I was planning to call the next one 'Arc II: Into Altiendel', which is equally vague.
I'll think on a broader campaign title that fits and doesn't give too much away. ('Snow, snow, and more snow' doesn't have quite the right punch.)
Absolutely brain dead. Will post tomorrow.
Absolutely blows my mind that Le Pen (who once said immigrants would "steal your wallet and brutalise your wife") won more than a third of the vote, but, hooray France for not electing a xenophobic nationalist president. Well done.
@All: Any objections or alternative suggestions to moving to square combat maps for Arc II (see the first slide of campaign maps), speak now or forever hold your peace.
Arc II status:
Overall layout (world politics, NPCs and conflicting motivations in play, location sketches): 95%
Combat maps: 30%
NPC stats: 5%
If I have a couple productive plane rides this week I may actually be mostly ready before we finish the interlude. (I plan to jump straight in even partly ready, but there may be hiccups.)
I'm good with square maps, whatever is easiest for you
Good to know, thanks. It's roughly the same time investment to make them square, but I expect they'll make combat a bit more straightforward at the cost of some realism. (Although it's worth noting that I still haven't given roll20 a proper chance like I said I would.)
The Oatmeal just published a really nice comic about accepting facts that contradict beliefs (or not, as it were).
(Incidentally, it's my new favorite Oatmeal comic, ranked right above the one about (un)happiness.)
Makes me wonder if prefacing facts like 'black people are far more likely to be shot by police in the US' or 'climate change exists' with some discussion of the backfire effect would be helpful in getting through. (Probably behavioral psychologists already know the answer to this - anyone know?)
There are of course quite a few on the left who could stand to see this too - one of my all-time favorite Tim Minchin bits speaks to this.
Also, looks like South Korea just elected a human rights lawyer who favors diplomacy to be president. Good week for world politics.
@Alaina: We're gonna need a montage. (Montage.)
You have an hour or so this weekend when we can both be on the forums to crank out some rapid fire posts?
Hi everyone,
Sorry I've been absent so long; I felt like I really needed a break from the game.
I've been thinking a bunch about Dulae, and I think her story has kind of run its course with the party. When making her I wasn't thinking much beyond this adventure, and she doesn't have much character motivation to stay with the group. And her dour personality was fun to play for a bit, but I'm ready as a player to move onto someone who will fit better into the group.
So! How would people feel about me rejoining the game in a little bit as a snarky Caster style Bard? I was thinking about the Thundercaller archetype so that I could still cover the nature type skills that Dulae was going to get. (And I promise I won't be abusing Thunder Call if we reach upper levels - they wrote that one with a loophole a mile wide that makes my inner minmaxer cackle with insane glee.)
Y'all may have noticed Dulae has already effectively become an NPC. (For evil, of course.) For the record, this plan is all good by me as long as it's good with the rest of the party. If so, Dulae's new character would join you early on in the next arc of your adventure, after you leave Southtown.
(And I promise I won't be abusing Thunder Call if we reach upper levels - they wrote that one with a loophole a mile wide that makes my inner minmaxer cackle with insane glee.)
I do love me some mischieviousness! I'm on board
I totally understand, and that plan is TOTALLY good by me! I am definitely one to understand wanting to switch characters partway through a campaign (there's always some point where they (read: I) get too fixated on a plot point that has NOTHING to do with the rest of the campaign xD)
I definitely like the sound of a mischievous bard, and Thundercaller seems to be preeeetty thematic.
I'm good with that Dulae.
As far as posting this weekend, I'm at a friend's wedding. Not sure if I'll be able to spare that much time. Sorry everyone.
Also, glad you caught the South Park reference.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Me when I catch a pop culture reference.
I think Cel (the player) is going to like this snarky bard. Looks like she or he will have a penchant for targeted silliness.
No worries Alaina - all the other PCs seem occupied for the time being (assuming Henri makes it back to the tavern at some point) so there's no urgency. We'll catch up when you can.
Do what ever you have to Dulae. It doesn't matter to me what form snark comes in ;)
We have a consensus then. Excellent. It's always more fun when everybody's playing characters they're into.
I reckon it'll probably be a couple RL weeks before your entrance Dulae.
Here's a pretty well done accounting of police shootings in Florida from 2009 to 2014.
I'm still pretty flabbergasted that we don't already count gun related violence and police related deaths as a matter of course, like heart disease or car crashes or factory accidents.
But, many kudos to the Tampa Bay Times for stepping up, collecting data, and using it to address this question in a very clear and accessible way: Do police shoot more black people than white people? In Florida at least, consistently yes.
(And there is evidence is true most places in the country, with a few growing crowd-sourced databases on police violence to better quantity it.)
I learned something last week about a bunch of badass women and workers' rights in the US.
Dang we take regulations for granted. Capitalism is super effective at what it's incentivized for, particularly innovation and economic growth. But it's not great for what undercuts the bottom line: worker and consumer safety, fair compensation, and conservation. Apparently hiring a fleet of lawyers to help a company lie is more cost effective than just not devaluing human life, at least for a time. We saw the same for tobacco, and now global warming.
Also, unrelatedly, this use of FORTIFY is kind of the best.
Interlude character development check-in: I expect to have some time over the long weekend to work on Arc II. How close are we to meeting our character development goals?
Here's my take:
Two PCs are ready to move on (Dara, Cel)
One PC needs to train, but could resolve that in a montage or two if pressed (Xizoh)
One PC has run into something unexpected and her player probably doesn't know how much longer a resolution might take (Henri)
One PC I don't have a good read on where she's at with respect to where she wants to be before the next arc (Alaina)
We've reached a good time to invest some energy in syncing back up again. Those with stuff to do - I should have some time to post if you're interested in montage-ing.
Yep, Cel is about as ready to go as he can be. I will also be MIA this Friday through Monday, so feel free to bot him as necessary!
Thanks Cel, good to know. I will do (this is convenient timing - I have just botted Cel as part of a montage for Alaina that takes place more than an hour later in Cel's current timeline - feel free to reply in character if you'd like).
Sorry about my absence everyone, but I'm finally graduated! Woo, time to get sucker punched by taxes.
Wow, congratulations graduate Xizoh!! You doing anything to celebrate?
(If you pay attention to how taxes get collected and spent at the local, state, and federal level, regularly communicate what you want to your reps, and vote accordingly, taxes don't feel as much like a sucker punch.)
Happy Memorial Day weekend all - I'm pausing the autobot clock until Tuesday. Dulae is visiting L.A. and says hello!
By the way - Dulae argues that I’m wrong, that the act of filing taxes always feels like a sucker punch regardless of your civic-mindedness. (Fair enough, I concede the point.)
==== GM travel advisory ====
I had some unexpected travel come up tomorrow (Wednesday) through late Friday. Expect limited posts tomorrow and Friday.
(No Tuesday SJ tip this week.)
Hey everyone. I would like to apologize for my absence. Found out earlier this week that my grandfather is not doing well and my pass soon. I've just not been in a good head space as of late.
Mikkel, bot me as necessary.
Very sorry to hear that Alaina. I will do that - best wishes to you and your family.
Sorry again for the delay all - someone else's misfortune turned into a series of ridiculously fortunate events for me.
I'll think on a bot-montage for Alaina tomorrow.
=== GM travel advisory ===
I'm bouncing between a few places in Oregon and Washington from today through next Thursday (6/15) for a conference and a visit to the lab. I don't anticipate any post delays, but here's a heads up just in case. (I'm still working on Alaina's bot montage.)
Also, holy sh!t Oregon is beautiful.
Yes, yes it is.