Ian Absentia

Honestly? They sound like they're hyping a product to investors. What they're saying isn't unlike 401K packages, insurance policies, time-share condominiums, spirituality/health lifestyle retreats, shareholder conferences, etc. It's getting everyone in the room on the same page and excited, and discrediting everyone who's not in the room (skeptics, critics, your friends and family, your spouse, etc). "Cult" seems a bit strong, but yeah, "business culture". Chaosium publicly mincing at water's edge instead of taking the plunge is a PR crisis that they need to quash. !i! [Edit: Oh, God, listening further to the explanation of Immutable X, asset bundling, and the purchase of carbon offsets, and imagining all the hand-waving to make the details go away.]

A landscape dominated by 1s and 5s. Though I do appreciate the irony of this comment regarding a company in the business of entertainment: "So you will let your fans dictate what kind of product you should or shouldn't release?! Pathetic." The desperation to continue pumping hot air is exquisite. !i!

To be fair, this appears to be VeVe stating their position on Chaosium's recent publicity release, not an update on Chaosium's intent. They have appearances to maintain in the face of bad press. But it's also fair to observe that "suspending" trade in NFTs is still an equivocal position to take while committing to no particular action. !i!

The perennial RPG topic: Do rules simulate real world dynamics, or the dynamics of story? The Push roll is an example of the latter, and it does a pretty good job of it, as described in the OP. The OP also states clearly that, having never played any edition of Call of Cthulhu, they have no dog in this fight, rendering the entire issue academic at best. Thank you for stopping by. !i!

[Odd -- I thought I'd hit SEND on this response yesterday.] First, agreed that Down Darker Trails doesn't get the love it deserves, both as an adjunct to CoC and as a straight-up Western game in its own right. With regard to gun lists, I'm conflicted. On one hand, I'm generally unconvinced that damage ratings can be dialed in realistically to differentiate the fine granularity of, say, +1 vs +1d2, etc. -- but that's cool and I don't doubt the sincerity of your efforts. On the other hand, effective ranges, number of rounds loaded, availability, and cost by name are invaluable to a game that relies on historical references. This is a setting where the gap between wanting or needing something on the frontier and having it in hand may be weeks, months, or even years, and a lot of the charm is in the historical details. I guess I'm leaning on flavor over functionality, and I like what you're doing. !i!

Be on the lookout for "We believe" statements in publicity releases. They're generally attempts to deflect responsibility by intoning fallibility. "We believe X to be true based on what we were told, though we understand that it may prove otherwise upon rigorous examination." Businesses trading in carbon offsets allow such statements to be made plausibly true in spirit, if not in actual practice. !i!

"How sweet — now artists can become little capitalist a**holes as well." ... "The idea that Ayn Rand, that Nietzsche-for-Teenagers toxin, should have her whacky ideas enshrined in a philosophy about money is what is terrifying to me." — Brian Eno on Libertarian tech bros and the commoditisation of art via NFTs https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/brian-eno-on-nfts-and-automatism/

Chaosium trading in NFTs is, at best, like that time you were at a party and that middle-aged guy turned up wearing leather pants. At worst, it's like that party where the middle-aged guy turned up and did a bunch of molly. Either way, it didn't impress the 20-Nothings the way he thought it would. !i!

See recent opinions in this other thread: As with most online ratings, you get only the outliers of either 1-Star or 5-Stars, scarce data in the middle. !i!

At the risk of sounding trite: Nazis ruin everything. Especially mystical iconography and symbolism. !i!

Arguably the epitome of certain paths to Illumination. Tuataras for the win...or non-loss. !i!

Not specific to any particular system, an "Unfamiliar Weapon" penalty seems in order in a situation like this. And it may be minor, or only a temporary penalty until familiarity is established. It's a matter of distraction and compensation, having to focus on the thing you don't know how to do well (the odd weapon) to the detriment of the thing you do know well (the shield). To be particular, Mythras does address this situation specifically relative to its Combat Styles, shifting the difficulty one grade harder with an unfamiliar combination. !i!

Or, as with Mythras Combat Styles, a skill that represents Sword & Shield (or Axe & Shield or Spear & Shield, etc.) as a single discipline. !i!

The emphasis on oversized pauldrons really does smell of Warhammer, doesn't it? !i!

I was thinking that they might be concept art -- early drafts for work that appeared in different form in final publication. !i!

I reckon it's simpler than all that. If you're already familiar with KAP, then you're on the right track. Traits (with a capital T) originated as a focused mechanic with King Arthur Pendragon*. They were adapted to the scheme of Runes for RQG and operate very similarly. Passions in RQG are functionally identical with those in KAP. So, yes, Passions v Runes in RQG. !i! (*And go back even farther to Thieves' World and Wyrm's Footnotes No.14 as an NPC tracking device.)

No, not the sole fact, but a popular opinion regularly invoked to reconcile with a status quo of misery. But also rather beside the point. !i!

Sayre's Law: In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. !i!

Honestly, why? Because there was so much money and prestige on the line? !i!

Nah, keeping your eyes, ears, and heart open is no accident. We approve, comrade. !i!

Agreed...with caveats. The one most likely to notice any difference is the GM, who might be surprised that the threat posed by a creature in one version of the rules may not carry over with the same effect to another. Do your homework and understand if variant rules allow unintended work-arounds to a creature's threat, or impose other threats that weren't anticipated. Adjust accordingly. Otherwise, yes, the chassis and engine are instantly recognisable. !i!

The spirit magic spell Summon definitely has useful applications for entreating helpful, or at least benign spirits to watch over things and prevent mishap. I recall several years ago working on a project behind a small Thai restaurant, and late in the morning, just before opening for lunch, someone came out the back door from the kitchen with a plate of food, set it down on a stone, lit a cigarette and set it on the edge of the plate, then went back inside. I assumed he'd come back out to finish his lunch, but only the crows came along to eat it. Over the next couple of days I realised it was an offering of the daily first order before opening for business. I also realised that crows can be weirdly fascinated with cigarettes. !i!

Which, in my opinion, is an element of roleplaying, and doesn't merit a mechanic. Of course, people have made similar arguments against characteristic stats, and how they're largely just reference values after one has calculated derived attributes like HPs and damage bonuses. But if we do away with all of that, what are we left to play? (cough-QuestWorlds-cough) That's a hard "no". !i!

Yea, verily. How about an Apathy? The player has to begin rolling to see if their character can do anything. But seriously, see above -- just strike it from the sheet, and the character remembers that they used to care deeply about something. !i!

Yep. !i!