Callie

What is your opinion of various tabletop games you've played? What did you like and not like about them? I'll start by listing and categorizing tabletop games by my rating: Best Agricola, Puerto Rico, Terra Mystica Good Civilization, Eclipse, 7 Wonders, Dominion, Power Grid, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Arkham Horror, Settlers of Catan, Talisman, Kingdom Builder Neutral Scrabble, Chess, Diplomacy Poor Clue, Apples to Apples Worst Risk, The Game of Life, Monopoly As you can see, I favor German-style games over anything else. Monopoly is my least favorite one by far. I like a game to exhibit the following: -No player elimination -Low dependency on chance, but not perfect information -Encourages player interaction -A built in mechanism that prevents the game from continuing endlessly (i.e. a victory point cap, depletion of resources, set number of rounds, etc.) -Well balanced -Complex strategy, but without overly complicated rules (the rulebook shouldn't be longer than thirty pages) -Economic or political theme -Variable board or game start

*2015 bump* I'm only taking three classes this semester; I'm completing what I should have finished a year ago. Process Control Unit Operations Lab II Design Project (a capstone course)

This is me trying to smile on cue: This is me standing awkwardly in front of a door:

​Guardians of the Galaxy: 6/10 - Meh Interstellar: 4/10 - Huh? Mockingjay - Part 1: 4/10 - There is only a single significant plot development the entire movie. Hercules: 2/10 - Predictably stupid. Don't let friends convince you to go to movies with them; I don't seem to learn that lesson. I regularly browse Rotten Tomatoes and whatnot, but 2014 didn't offer a whole lot of films that piqued my interest.

Yay!

Do you enjoy discussing controversial topics? - Yes What is your stance on LGTB? Why is LGBT a "lifestyle"? Sexual orientation/gender identity isn't any more a lifestyle than race or height is. Discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is immoral. Do you believe extraterrestrials. I've never met any extraterrestrials, so I don't know how honest they are. I'm fairly certain that extraterrestrials, if they exist, don't speak my language. I can't really believe something if I don't know what it means. What is your stance on globalization. The world is developing unequally, but I do hope that globalization will lead to better relations and eventually a united world government. As far as economics are concerned: trade is a good thing; unfortunately, many corporations and governments exploit less developed countries in the process. What is your stance on animal captivity. That really depends on the animal and how the animal is held captive. Some animals appear to have sentience, self-awareness, and theory of mind (i.e. dolphins). I would not hold such animals captive or even kill such animals. I have no problem with eating common livestock such as cows, but they should at least be treated in a humane manner. What is your stance on femenism. I am a feminist. What is your stance on gun laws? What Lilith said. Do you believe in a god. I neither believe in gods nor any other spiritual or supernatural beings. Do you believe the extinction of mankind will come in the short-term or long-term as compared to the geological timescale. I am optimistic that humanity will not destroy itself in the future. The sun will eventually die out, and I have no idea how advanced space travel will be by then.

On a geological timescale, maybe.

As it turns out, grand juries indict police officers much less often than the general public.

I suppose that the only form of economics in which choice is free from unwanted instruction or guidance is anarcho-communism. Is it truly in the best interest of humanity for individuals to have completely free choice? The goal of society should be to create and maintain a system in which suffering is minimized and everyone is ensured a state of well-being, as much as possible. This ultimately means that everyone has a responsibility for everyone else, and that one's choices will be instructed or guided in some way or another.

Holomir - Dwarven Cleric

Hmm… I grew up in a fundamentalist household. My father thought that the southern baptist church we went to was far too liberal and openly defended the Westboro Baptist Church. He was pretty insistent on turning me into a petty hate machine. His indoctrination rants constituted most of the attention I received as a child, so I took his virulent ideas to heart. If I responded with even a slightly questioning look, he would continue to loudly belabor the point for an hour until I obsequiously caved into his view. I've always had extreme social anxiety, so I never regurgitated anything vocally in real life. The only place I expressed any such bigotry was on these very forums (note that the mods were pretty lax about everything back then, so I never got in trouble). Even then I felt guilty, because deep down I knew that nothing I said was loving or productive. I am still wrought with remorse concerning the actions of my younger self. My father espoused the death penalty by stoning for sodomy, adultery, female preachers, and other bogus offenses against his perception of Christianity. My mother, although fundamentalist, was never that fundamentalist. Yet, she took to heart the patriarchy inherent to fundamentalism. My father yelled at her nearly every night. They would argue about the most absurd things, such as the wattage on a light bulb or usage of a towel. When my mother would not give in to my father's demands, he would yell about how much he hated the devil inside her and how evil she was. I sometimes overheard my father angrily citing scripture so he could pressure my mother into sex, but she actually refused in such instances. My mother afforded him power, but she also made three times as much money as him (except for the period in which she was unemployed -- she was fired for using untested methods on a patient). I don't know the details, but my parents divorced when I was sixteen (They never told me: I found out on Facebook). When my parents were married, my mother would isolate because of my father; now she expresses guilt over the divorce. When I hit pubescence, I started to have inklings of rational thought. This combined with indoctrination caused a great deal of cognitive dissonance. I only had a few friends, but sometimes I'd ditch them to go ponder in the thatched tumbleweed igloo I built behind the school. I eventually told my father off in college, after an I argument I had with him. He insisted that marital rape is not possible, and that I should get a vasectomy so that I "don't make any mistakes with evil American women." I'm atheist and support either nordic-style welfare capitalism or light socialism, so he of course tells my siblings how evil I am. We're estranged and I have no desire to talk to him. I acquired depression in college. I never sought help, because I had taught myself to isolate whenever my parents were arguing. The depression spiraled downward until last semester when I was submitted to a mental hospital. I had locked myself in my room with no light, no food, no hygiene, and a series of suicidal scribbles on post-it notes. I had a noose ready, but I was catatonic when they found me. I'm on antidepressants now and receive counseling; they help a lot, but I'm still often in a depressed state or consumed by existentialist angst. I personally understand Tevildo's plight, because I often feel guilty simply because I'm a cis-gendered, heterosexual, anglo-saxon, middle class male. So I know a thing or two about convictions. As for conversations: I try to change people's viewpoints if I think they act out of prejudice. I am rarely shaken by bigotry, because most bigots are rational in comparison to my father. I often won't get into an argument; I might resort to a satirical remark. I think humor is a great way to highlight prejudices and contradictions.

New issue: I thought this was an issue with my copy of BoA, but my beta testers are having the same problem. I have two towns in which BoA puts the party on the wrong side of the map. i.e. One town has the west entrance on the west side, and the north, south, and east entrances on the east side. When the party enters the town, it will end up on the west side, regardless of the direction it entered from (The party can only physically enter from the east and west).

That does the trick. I knew that some calls excepted the number of a character, but not that one. Thanks!

I've sent out the scenario. I'm on mac, so let me know if the windows version actually works. Thanks for testing!

I am looking for a few beta testers to test my new scenario: Restless Souls. It's a small scenario, so it shouldn't take much time to play. If you'd like to test, please fill out the following: Name: Email: (You can PM it to me, if you'd like) Operating System: Thanks!

I've run into another problem: I can't get the call set_attitude to work properly. Creature 1300 is initially neutral, but dialog choices make it hostile. I have the dialog call a state in the town script; I know it's doing this because the rest of the state is working. I've tried using the make_town_hostile call to no avail. Here is the code: (On another note, the set_char_dialogue_pic call isn't working for this creature) Edit: I've figured out how to force the attitude change by using the call in the corresponding creature script.

Oh wow, that fixed it. Thanks!

Goldengirl and I both got 99 on liberalism, so you'd have to share the prize with us.

Thank you! The ellipses work now and so does the puzzle!

I've run into a few problems while alpha testing my small scenario. I've spent several hours trying to fix them, but to no avail. Thanks for looking this over! 1. Ellipses… For some reason, the game turns many ellipses into either a "É" or a "A¶"; however, they work fine in one town, but not others. I am using both AScript and TextEdit for my scripts. I've tried simply retyping the ellipses, but that doesn't fix the problem. I don't want to remove them, because the ellipses are important to one of the main character's dialog. 2. Boats: I have a boat the party can use in the main town, but I can't physically exit the town. I've tried resizing the outdoor town limits so that the borders are further into the water, but that doesn't solve the problem. I've also tried using a state that uses the call change_outdoor_location but that does nothing. This prevents the party from physically reaching some parts of the scenario. 3. I have a puzzle in which flipping levers changes the terrain height of certain tiles. The party cannot finish the scenario without finishing this puzzle. It partially worked at first, but there were several infinite loops and unmatched parenthesis that Alint did not catch and I had to fix. Once I fixed the issues, the levers no longer did anything. I've made sure that the states match up; here is the script:

They're mostly easy classes. I'm a chemical engineering major, so lots of homework is the norm for me. I'd rather fluff my transcript than sit around for a semester. Also, I intend to take two semester of Spanish as a basis for teaching myself the language. I excel at foreign language.

To expound upon this: The justice system certainly deters crime to some extent, but that extent is uncertain. There are seemingly two ways to increase deterrence: to increase the severity of the sentence, and to increase enforcement and thereby decrease the potential to evade conviction. Presumably, the restriction or loss of one's freedoms is the primary means of deterrence. In the latter case, increased likelihood of conviction consequently increases the probability of lost freedoms. The former case does no such thing; it merely extends the loss of freedoms (or in the case of execution, nullifies them). Does increased severity also increase deterrence? A maximum sentence of one year for murder would not effectively deter murder. Clearly, conviction alone is not adequate for deterrence. What about ten years? Maybe. Life imprisonment or death? Probably, but is it necessary? Fear of incarceration has to be substantiated by an appropriate length of imprisonment. What length of sentence is appropriate? Research is an option, but quite frankly, studies regarding the effect of severity on deterrence provide often conflicting and nebulous results; there certainly isn't a consensus. An offender likely has a decent comprehension of what one year of lost time amounts to, but does one truly understand the weight of forty years? Or life and death? Consequently, the effect of severity on deterrence might very well increase rapidly at first but later be subject to diminishing returns: a logarithmic curve. One issue is that deterrence does not apply equally. For some offenders, deterrence might not be effective at all. Some people commit crimes out of a compulsion (i.e. pedophilia or substance addiction). Other crimes result from a strong, heat-of-the-moment emotional response (i.e. a person walking in on a cheating spouse). Finally, some criminals are convinced that they will evade capture. The length of incarceration or threat of death is relatively meaningless in such instances. Execution doesn't deter some criminals, and for others, a lesser sentence may have been marginally less effective. In the U.S., life imprisonment is cheaper than incarceration. Execution serves no utilitarian purpose. The purpose is a thirst for punishment, for vengeance: a ritualized form of sadism. Maybe people really do need an outlet for sadism… but I doubt it.

I wouldn't have compunction about sentencing psychopaths in and of itself, but I would have compunction executing such people, and to a greater extent than other offenders.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder without any known cure. It strikes me as remarkably cruel to execute someone who has already been sentenced to indefinite civil commitment, let alone someone who is mentally ill.

Atomic bombs have severe long-term consequences, and as Alorael pointed out, they're highly indiscriminate. Conventional bombs are often indiscriminate, but they at least don't cause damage to future generations in the form of radiation.