@Alphastream
To clarify point 1: Given exactly *who* you hired to perform an extralegal terror raid against a small YouTuber in late April of 2023, at which point I stopped purchasing your products, I would consider your recognition of the union and your negotiation with said union in good faith to be tantamount to refusing to engage in any further use of such chaotic evil tactics to maintain control of your properties. Do not prove me wrong.

4/2

@Alphastream
Oh, and to clarify point 2: The SRDs are to be *unabridged*, you owlbear thieves. They are also to be unedited, with one allowed exception: you may replace all instances of "race" and "racial" with "species".

(While I do not expect you to add anything, selected unedited additions of never-before-open existing 3.5 rules content would be a plus, so long as these additions are released as both CC-BY *and* OGL.)

3/2

@Alphastream
1) Recognize the union.
2) Actually *RELEASE* the D&D 3.0, D&D 3.5, and d20 Modern System Reference Documents available under a CC-BY license in addition to their current OGL availability, instead of *claiming* you will only for the date of release to be farther out every time you remember to string us along.
3) Make the old 3.5 Archive content that used to be on your website prior to 2022 officially available again in some form, *and do not pretend you don't know what I mean*.

2/2

So apparently @Alphastream has the ear of WotC for the moment, as part of a council that's the closest replacement we have for them actually once having surveys that weren't exclusive to D&D Beyond subscribers (and therefore only people who'll say what they want to hear to at least some degree).

So, if you're listening, @Alphastream , right now I care about exactly three things:

1/2

So, our GM has clearly been having an increasingly hard time keeping up with the stresses of running the campaign, even as our ambitions for it grow. Yesterday, we were *going* to have a session, but she was clearly having trouble *even keeping up with our efforts to decide how to frame the scene*. I put my foot down and insisted that we go on hiatus for a month... though I don't think she really *gets* it, and thinks this is merely skipping a week... when no, *clearly* she's off her game.

Random question: How big do you prefer dragons to be?

My preference is "big enough to eat a human in one sitting, not so big that you're left wondering what it eats".

Notably, there were *already* "save the world" stakes in play. Raising it to "save the world from multiple threats at once, and figure out who's trying to accomplish what and how exactly and who's allied with and opposed to whom" just... kinda comes across as too much work for just one adventuring party. Or even just one normal-sized party, two miniature parties, and a solo adventurer, as we currently have collaborating on the major project we're already in the middle of.

One of my characters, who wound up party leader by default because the other PCs were either too scatterbrained or too passive to do it themselves, is finally starting to crack in the face of things turning out to not merely be a question of a single cult with many facets, but a big clash of multiple powerful interests like that. OOCly, we're already making plans involving having to recruit and coordinate double digits of adventurers just to deal with all the tentacles.

And she seems surprised.

GMs, ever accidentally escalated the stakes in a campaign too *much?*

I don't mean TPKs or the like. I mean revealing so much danger, complexity, or other complication that the PCs' reactions and strategies are *much* more severe (and potentially awkward to implement) than expected.

...Because I get the sense my D&D 3.5 DM did *not* expect the reveal of a Thirty Gambit Pileup when the PCs were already struggling with the circumstances at hand to have those kinds of effects.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@catsalad/115350660637492611

This past weekend, I used a cat video to justify an action Savaa took in our D&D 3.5 game.

...And you can be certain that among cats in the #RealmsOfPugmire , the belief that Man was able to control weather and the cycle of day and night continues unabated.
#Pugmire #MonarciesOfMau

For the morbidly curious (like I'm sure @pluralistic would be), the products in question are a series of stainless steel latched canisters, and the contradiction is that their descriptions all say they have airtight seals, but the specifications all say they don't. It seems weird to think that an airtight seal would have been "hallucinated" three out of three times, so I'm thoroughly confused. #enshittification

https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tabletop/pdp/prep-savour-damire-203-oz-food-storage-container-w110464423.html

https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tabletop/pdp/prep-savour-405oz-stainless-steel-food-storage-container-w004529204.html

https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tabletop/pdp/prep-savour-405oz-stainless-steel-food-storage-container-w004529204.html

It's seeming like even online shopping — the one function of the Web you'd *think* the capitalists would try their best to keep smooth — is getting more difficult these days. I found an entire line of products where the description and listed specifications of them contradicted each other, so it's impossible to tell whether they're even worth buying or not. Uh, guys, if your intent is to get my money, how are you supposed to accomplish that without transactions happening? #enshittification

#cats #MemesFromOutside

The idea of causing *trouble* causes the Pollyanna side to gasp, clutch their pearls, and assume you're a Rambo trying to find a way to get political violence past the radar. On the other end, Rambo types seem to think that if you're preparing to perform *any* kind of resistance that doesn't hurt or seriously risk hurting people, you're naïve and worthy of mockery and lumping in with the Pollyannas who are so sure that just *behaving harder* will solve the problem.

2/3

A name occurs to me for one of the big cultural deficits/blind spots I've been frustrated by. especially recently when it's been most relevant:

The Pollyanna-Rambo Complex.

Which is to say, a lot of people seem to imagine that either everything is going to work out with at most some well-mannered and socially acceptable scolding/protest, or they think that every enemy needs to be mowed down and everything destroyed. Furthermore, you simply *must* take the "correct" side.

1/3

This is something I've *definitely* noticed that the right no longer understands.
#MemesFromOutside

#Caturday #MemesFromOutside

#MemesFromOutside #pun #cats

[Universities that betray protesters and hospitals that halt gender-affirming care] "aren't merely 'complying in advance.' They are betraying their mission in order to save their bacon" [...] "This will come back to bite them in the ass. This is like firefighters doing a bit of arson on the side to make ends meet, and thinking that the townsfolk will continue to vote to maintain their budget." — @pluralistic

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/19/selling-out/#destroy-the-village-to-save-it