A lot is expected from DMs, but I don’t see calls to action to up the ante for the players. I get not demanding much other than enthusiasm from a new player - learning the ropes can be overwhelming. But that leeway is supposed to wear off as time goes by.

If the game uses a published setting, there are no reasons players shouldn’t be expected to learn enough of the lore to tie their character backstories into the bigger narrative. They should definitely create family members, friends, frenemies, rivals, love interests, jobs, places… ideally with blanks so they can tie in with other player’s backstories.

One way to encourage that is by using supplemental character sheets. Basic character sheets focus the core mechanics of the game as they should. But having something asking those questions from the players helps spark creativity. And perhaps a character that has ties in the world they inhabit is less likely to go murderhoboing around.

Open source or bust

You might be confounding effect and cause. Usually material decline follows value corruption.

New Seth Traveller video just dropped!

Close enough.

I’d like to see such a map for mass shootings in the U.S.

The requirements for a media server mesh well with a NAS and *arr suite and other light loads. Low CPU demand, some RAM demand, integrated GPU if you need transcoding and that’s it.

They are wildly different from generative AI. For good performance, you’ll want a decent GPU with loads of VRAM or brute force with raw CPU power and RAM. If you care about power draw at all, you don’t want this on 24/7/365. Why not build a cool gaming rig and use it for AI? As a bonus, now you have a cool gaming rig with your AI machine!

I am just starting so take this not as a recommendation but as an option. I am familiar with Linux but do not work in IT.

I got myself a used desktop as a starting point. It can handle 2x 3.5” drives, one 2.5”, plus an NVMe. You could buy an adaptor and change the DVD drive for another 2.5” caddy, but more on that later. It came with 8GB of RAM, but it can handle 64. I spent something like $250 including cables, bolts, caddies, but not drives.

If you watched the video, you’ll notice the CPU has video transcoding acceleration and encryption acceleration too. It comes out ahead of modern N100 CPUs being widely used for home NAS these days, and draws a minuscule amount of power while idle. Indeed, most of the idle power draw for my machine comes from the drives.

So pros:

• can host a decent amount of services
• upgradable (PCIe slots and up to 4* spindles)
• the fourth needs you to convert the DVD to a caddy, but then you need to get an expansion card to add another SATA port, but will allow you to go RAID 10 or z2/6.
• small and mostly silent, low power draw
• 2x M.2 slots, one for NVMe and the other for an expansion card (like a Coral TPU or Wi-Fi)
• cheap

Cons:

• 3x onboard SATA ports, 3x drive bays means you’re rather stuck with RAID z1/5
• lower reliability from a used unit
• 1x 1 Gb Ethernet port onboard only

For software, I’m using TrueNAS scale. It’s easy to install and configure, there’s good documentation and a support forum, can run docker containers and VMs. Lots of administration quality of life tools built in that you don’t need to build. Plus it’s Linux and I can tinker with it if the need arises.

To get to what you want, you could install an M.2 A+E to SATA adaptor and a slim DVD to 2.5” caddy to come up to 4 drives, add memory, a multiport multigigabit NIC, an NVMe and 4 drives and you’d be set. VMs for your firewall, VPN, pihole, dockers for the rest.

Wax paper isn’t recyclable and putting paraffin in landfills isn’t great. Regular brown paper in a freshly made local bakery is quite fine, though.

And I’m trying to understand why.

Let me make a comparison. I like Fari as a Fate VTT. Fari is limited to the point of being “bad”, but I still like it for what it provides for free and how they interact with their community. It’s likely related to me preferring to play theater of the mind and using VTT to share art, simplify skill rolls/ math, other stuff that makes the session go smoother.

For that level of requirements, Roll20, Role, Foundry, all offer a decent package.

What is it about Roll20 that rubs you the wrong way enough to elicit hate? Just not updating the product?

It’s pretty common to include a stake (ie stocks) in the purchase tender of companies. Sometimes very little actual money is exchanged. They agree on what each company is worth and the owners of the bought business end up with an equivalent stake in the remaining company.

That’s no reason to hate anything. You just mentioned there are alternatives, just switch to them.

P.S. I am very skeptic of any claim that any TTRPG product making money have over first these days. Especially one with a functional free tier.

Why the hate?

The 2.5 unit I have runs cooler and consumes less power. It’s also more expensive.

Most sane PETA activism.

lol, thanks for the tip, I’ll keep an eye out for him!

Mozilla’s V3 implementation already extends out removing artificial limitations from it. Mozilla’s doing a reverse E3 and I’m all here for it.

Now if only the nincompoop IT dept on my company allowed me to run Firefox…

Can we stop with the clockshaming? All clocks are good clocks.

Behold your brethren!

Paging @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world