I'm a bit late in getting into this, but thought some others might like to know also.

https://adventofcode.com/2019

Advent of Code is an Advent calendar of small programming puzzles for a variety of skill sets and skill levels that can be solved in any programming language you like. People use them as a speed contest, interview prep, company training, university coursework, practice problems, or to challenge each other.

You don't need a computer science background to participate - just a little programming knowledge and some problem solving skills will get you pretty far. Nor do you need a fancy computer; every problem has a solution that completes in at most 15 seconds on ten-year-old hardware.

I submitted a game for the 200 Word RPG, Out of Time. It is a time travel story of a person trying to defeat an enemy that his older self did not defeat. The RPG Geek 24 Hour RPG was going on during the same period, so I expanded that terse presentation over the rest of the 24 hours, creating the entry Out of Time - Expanded.

It was an interesting process; I'm not sure if the end result of the longer product is better, or just more verbose. But I finally used GM Binder, a patreon that I've been supporting for a while because I liked the idea of it. It turned out to be just as great as the idea seemed for short form publications. It was a lot easier than opening Affinity Publisher to layout something that brief.

Voting is going on now for the 24 hour rpg (link), and there are a lot of great entries there if you're interested in taking a look.

The 200 Word RPG version can also be found on my blog- http://www.chuckdee.net/?blog/outoftime. I'll be posting the Expanded version there, also.

Let me know what you think if you decide to read it!

#ttrpgs #rpgs #RPGGeek #24HourRPG #200WordRPG

I've always put the following statement in by bios: I'm a software architect, but I long to be a writer.

Yet, I've only stumbled in that direction a few times a year. If I'm being honest with myself, it seems that I need an event to write instead of making it a part of my day-to-day life. I game more than I write.

I stumbled across this video: I've made an agreement with myself- to write each day. Whether a sentence, a paragraph, or a few pages. I don't need an event. I will #JustStart.

#Writing

Someone approaches you and says that they want to read and play seven roleplaying games, but want those seven games to cover the widest possible range of the #rpg experience, design concepts, play styles and so forth. They need you to pick those seven games. What list do you give them?

Don't reply here, but rather make a post with the #7wideRpg tag.

I think for the most part, I'd go with those games that have proven to be the foundation of other games.

1. Fate Core (I would go with FUDGE to go further back, but I don't think it is accessible as Fate Core.
2. Apocalypse World (PbTA)
3. Deadlands (Savage Worlds)
4. Vampire (Storyteller)
5. Star Wars (d6)
6. Call of Cthulhu (BRP)
7. Dungeons & Dragons 3rd (or 3.5)

Those aren't necessarily my firrst choice of game- I just think that they represent what is being asked.

#7wideRpg

Another example of a great edit that should have already been made to A New Hope instead of some of the other more questionable ones that were done. #StarWars #ANewHope #Movies

I was surprised to see the guitarist and drummer from DLO3 in this group. But they jam... as one commenter said, "Rare video of men discovering fire."

#funk #music #dlo3 #TheTrueLoves

Brilliant.

#CurrentEvents #Election2020

I follow Steven Barnes, and he made some interesting observations about life that I'll quote here based on Rocketman.

2. YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS.
You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS.
Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works”.

4. A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL IT IS LEARNED.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Then you can go on to the next lesson.

5. LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END.
There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

The final step is that the Student becomes the Master and shares his experience with others that are still trying to master the process.

It's an interesting read!

ROCKETMAN (2019) and Life’s Lessons

I just love that she just asked- and he said yes! Then she said they'd come to LA, and he said that he'd come there instead. Such a feel-good video!

A #TEDTalk about #CurrentEvents in the #News by Baratunde Thurston All I have to say is... wow.

From Arnheim:

Americans tend to conflate the idea of “concentration camps” with “death camps” because that’s how the simplified version of the war’s history presents them. Most of the concentration facilities run by the Nazi regime eventually became “death camps,” especially once it was clear that the Reich was on the back foot—but on the most literal level, the purpose of a concentration camp is right there in the name: to concentrate a group of people (often considered “undesirable”) in a limited space for ease of both containment and control.

In that sense, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is absolutely correct about what we are doing to undocumented immigrants in this country: we are placing them in concentration camps. We needn’t be yanking their gold teeth, performing medical experiments on them, or shoving them all into a concrete room for a “shower” (please understand that I’m not making light of any of those things) in order for the fact that they’re in concentration camps to be true.

We did the same thing to Japanese-Americans during WW II—we just like to tell ourselves it was different from what the Reich was doing because we weren’t actively feeding anyone to furnaces.

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is absolutely correct to call the camps we’re detaining other human beings in “concentration camps.” She’s being called out because of the emotional resonance that term has in our history that exists entirely separately from its clinical meaning, but she is not wrong.

It’s just kinda galling to watch the people who’re freaking out over her (admittedly pathos-based-and-triggering) phrasing also praise Trump’s categorization of our undocumented immigration situation as “an invasion” (which is another pathos-steeped loaded label specifically designed to elicit an emotional response).

#CurrentEvents #Immigration #Truth

#MCU #CaptainAmerica #Endgame #Movies #Comics #Writing

I'll try to avoid spoilers in this particular post, but something about the ending of Endgame stuck with me. There's been more and more scrutiny of one particular detail, and it inspired me to write down my own version of what I think events could have been.

Of course, there are spoilers in the short story, so be warned of that. It needs more editing to be sure, but it is at least at a point where I'm comfortable sharing it. Criticism and comments are definitely encouraged.

...instead of taking out Han shooting first and other insignificant changes, he should have been doing stuff like this... We only really know how badassed Darth is by reputation. It's been in auxiliary media that we've seen hints, then in Rogue One. This is how I like to think of Darth in the movies- active, rather than just letting his troopers do all the work.

#StarWars #EmpireStrikesBack #Movies

#GameOfThrones #GoT #Television