scrape_r_rational/data/cache/3so2j0.md

[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

Post:

Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

Comments:

• u/AmeteurOpinions:

  This world desperately needs a *Worm*/*One Punch Man* crossover.
  

  • u/xamueljones:

    [Here](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/meh-i-can-take-them-all-worm-one-punch-man.291901/) you go!
    

    • u/IomKg:

      Thanks for the link. Was kind of a fun read, even though I think it kinda misses something with letting saitama have some fun during his fights. But it can be forgiven because its the start of his career, and the writing has been nice so far.
      

• u/raymestalez:

  Hey, everyone!  I am working on series of posts where I talk about what I've learned about writing so far:
  
  [Story Structure](https://medium.com/p/story-structure-5da799745034)  
  [Story Essence](https://medium.com/p/story-essence-60576fb1edc4)  
  [How Climax is connected to other Story Elements](https://medium.com/p/how-climax-is-connected-to-other-story-elements-49e22cee3d68)  
  [Story writing process](https://medium.com/p/story-writing-process-12c8560c7d21)  
  
  I thought you may find this interesting.
  
  (the articles are still drafts, I'm working on improving and expanding them, so I'd love some feedback).
  

  • u/IcyWindows:

    I enjoyed them.  Thanks.
    

• u/None:

  [deleted]
  

  • u/alexanderwales:

    1. That can be a hard thing to do in D&D unless you have roleplaying buy-in from all the players. The problem is that while you can say that a *character* doesn't know something, the *player* is still going to know. I've tried it before and it's difficult. (Having amnesiac characters trying to uncover the past is easier, because the player starts from the same position of ignorance.) Tread carefully.
    
    2. Dread is good if you want it lightweight.
    
    3. I tend to sketch out really quick maps if there's going to be travel involved. I spent a few years running a game set in a D&D version of Europe and found it helpful to mark important locations. Maps also help to give you a sense of place, and if you give the map to the players, it adds production values.
    
      For planning out encounters ... it depends. I have enough improv experience to spin up an adventure from a standing start (where the only notice that I'll be running a game is the regular GM not showing up), but it's again an issue of production values. If you rely too heavily on improv, you can improv yourself into a corner. I tend to write out some dialogue beforehand to cover most of my bases and get stats for all the monsters that I'll be using. If it's your first time as GM, I would highly recommend doing that so you don't lose your way.
    
    4. I don't think there's anything wrong with just starting off with your own stuff. The perk of doing that is that you'll know the scenario backward and forward and have a deeper understanding of it than you'd have of something created by someone else. The big worry is in trying something that goes against either the conventions of your rule system or the conventions of RPGs generally, especially if you don't have buy-in from the players. Like, I wouldn't make my *first game* of D&D have a party of all wizards, because that requires some adjustments that I might not be able to figure out without experience.
    

    • u/derefr:

      > The problem is that while you can say that a character doesn't know something, the player is still going to know. I've tried it before and it's difficult.
      
      Players tolerate this a lot more if you use a system in which knowledge/memories have game-mechanical crunch. For any aspect of a game without rules, players think of themselves as the character; when rules come in, the character does things they wouldn't, and that's okay and expected.
      
      For example, imagine a fantasy detective game: everyone keeps a list of clues they are aware of, must *present* clues *from* their list to solve the mystery, and must *make a check on* a clue they possess in order to get a suspicion about a person/place.
      
      Now imagine the mystery's villain has an amnesia spell. When they use it, a random clue gets erased from your list. It's now obvious to the player that something has been taken away *from the character*. *The player* still knows that there *was* a clue, but, like an item being stolen, the character no longer "has" the clue, so they can't use game verbs (present evidence; investigate) to *act upon* the clue.
      

  • u/derefr:

    On a similar note, I've been considering a Quest (i.e. MSPA/RubyQuest-style Interactive Fiction game) that is a mash-up of *Mother of Learning* with (a reversed perspective on a genocide run of) the game *Undertale*.
    
    The userbase would play as someone who is aware that there is a serial killer loose in their closed community, and must stop them... only the serial killer is a looper, and the user-avatar is **not**. This means that the serial killer can reset the loop at any time of their own volition, and a reset will also be triggered upon their death.
    
    The user-avatar gets one piece of information: the number of loops that have passed. The userbase must then try to infer and discard every solution they *would have thought to have tried* in all previous loops, because the looper will have already seen and accounted for (i.e. gained reflexes against, as a speedrunner does with a predictable sequence in a game) all of those strategies.
    
    To make this not just a bunch of debate on a forum, though, anyone can request, as a command, to *imagine* the results of an action, the output of which will always be perfectly true and simulated equivalently to the story's own physics... given the set of facts that the user-avatar is aware of. Knowledge would be inventory in this game.
    
    In other words, I basically see this as an escape-the-room game, where "the room" is you being tortured for a million years by a malicious AI. Or you can look at it as an AI-box experiment, which might immediately suggest solutions to some of you. Either way, the "true" solution would probably involve at least some timeless-decision-theoretic reasoning.
    

    • u/rineSample:

      This is the most amazing thing I've heard in a long time. *Please* make this a reality.
      

  • u/ArgentStonecutter:

    I don't think you can play an antimemetic opponent without a bunch of rollbacks, and pretending to be caught in the rollback might help or might piss them off. You could short-circuit it a bit.
    
    Try reading [this](http://www.amazon.com/Gift-From-Earth-Larry-Niven/dp/0345350510) ahead of time. Don't read the reviews on this page, they're full of spoilers.
    
    [spoiler](#s " Matthew Keller is an antimemetic.")
    

  • u/None:

    Well, if you can simulate *actual* antimemetics, that would be best. For example, a system that can generate an antimemetic fork at a decision point - you don't declare it, but it happens. From that point, there's an event in the future which will happen, which will have effects that players witness - casual chains with no foundation.
    

• u/None:

  [deleted]
  

  • u/Chronophilia:

    Yes, we are. I don't know if everyone gets this, but... have you ever felt down "for no real reason", or cancelled a social engagement because you "just didn't feel like going out"? Most likely there's some cause for those that no amount of introspection will bring to mind. Considering your past reactions and the evidence of your actions rather than your thoughts is the only way to get past that barrier.
    
    It might turn out that (to use an example from my own experience) walking to work in the morning makes you more likely to hang out with friends in the evening, even if you didn't consciously know that was the reason for your decision.
    

    • u/SvalbardCaretaker:

      Big parts of my depression are a subconcious part pushing the "feel bad" or "stop action"  button as the only way to communicate. 
      
      It sucks.
      

• u/Ima_Person:

  What are your favorite podcasts? I'm new to podcasts and have only listened to Hello Internet.
  

  • u/4t0m:

    Some of the podcasts I listen to (that make sense to recommend here):
    
    * Cortex, Reconcilable Differences (Two podcasts): Similar in genre to Hello Internet, but a bit less silly.  Cortex has Grey from Hello Internet.
    
    * ATP: Like the above but with a tech news (esp. Apple) focus.  Can be boring if you aren't interested in that, but is often fun anyway.
    
    * Rationally Speaking: Julia Galef (CFAR President) has conversations with people about their ideas.  
    
    * Econtalk: Conversations between Russ Roberts and various economists/people in related fields.  Not fun to listen to if you dislike libertarian ideas.
    
    * Worm Audiobook and HPMOR Podcast (Two podcasts): Enjoy great stories while doing other things!
    
    * Dear Hank and John: Kind of embarrassing to admit, but I like this, even though I stopped watching Vlogbrothers videos a long time ago.
    
    * The Weeds: Conversations between journalists about policy issues, rather than politics.  Just put out a good episode about Basic Income Guarantees. 
    
    * StartUp: Short episodes about the business of being a Start Up.  Very well produced.
    
    * About Race: Occasionally frustrating exercise in overcoming anti-SJW sentiments through exposure therapy / conversations between mostly reasonable sounding people about why race is still a big deal and we should care a lot.
    
    * Waking Up with Sam Harris: Smarter and less crazy than you'd think if you've moved away from "New Atheism".  Haven't listened to many episodes, but I've enjoyed those I have.
    
    General Podcast Tips: 
    
    * Think of something you like.  Now google that thing + "podcast" or just search for that term in itunes or your podcast app.  
    
    * Slowly increase your listening speed.  I listen at 3X speed, and it's great.
    

  • u/DataPacRat:

    > podcasts
    
    My current lineup:
    
    * Planet Money
    * On the Media
    * The memory palace
    * 2600: Off The Hook
    * 2600: Off The Wall
    * Note to Self
    * Savage Lovecast
    * Tested
    * You are not so Smart
    * 99% Invisible
    * TedTalks Audio
    * RadioLab
    * Welcome to Nightvale
    * Freakonomics
    * The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
    * Decoder Ring Theatre
    * Singularity 1 on 1
    * Revolutions
    * Under The Influence
    * Invisibilia
    

  • u/Empiricist_or_not:

    * Cthulhu and friends (Not rational but good tabletop game)
    * Godsfall (ditto)
    * Sayer (Comedy Horror and unbound movie AI)
    * Android Backstage (Google developers discussing Android)
    

• u/ToaKraka:

  What are your favorite "pick-up-and-play" games--games that have short start-up and play-session times? (I would have said "casual", but that label doesn't seem to fit, nowadays...)
  
  ---
  
  My past favorites (in no particular order):
  
  * *Minesweeper* ([free in a zillion incarnations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minesweeper_(video_game\))): Puzzle
  
  * *Klondike* ([free in a zillion incarnations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_(solitaire\))): Puzzle
  
  * *Snake* ([free in a zillion incarnations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_(video_game\))): Action puzzle
  
  * *House of Dead Ninjas* ([free Flash game](http://games.adultswim.com/house-of-dead-ninjas-action-online-game.html)): Vertical-scrolling melee action
  
  * *Super House of Dead Ninjas* ([free Flash game](http://games.adultswim.com/super-house-of-dead-ninjas-action-online-game.html)--[full version $10 on Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/224820/)): Vertical-scrolling melee action
  
  * *Tetris* ([free in a zillion incarnations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris)): Action puzzle
  
  My current favorites (in no particular order):
  
  * *Amorphous Plus* ([free Flash game](http://armorgames.com/play/2044)): Top-down melee action
  
  * *Nuclear Throne* ([$13 on Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/242680/)): Top-down shooting action
  
  * *Downwell* ([$3 on Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/360740/)): Vertical-scrolling melee action
  
  * *Corruption of Champions* (NSFW) ([free Flash game](http://www.fenoxo.com/?page_id=36)): Pornographic text adventure
  

  • u/xamueljones:

    I recommend [Limbo](http://playdead.com/limbo/) and [Braid](http://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/). They are not exactly short (around 5-8 hours), but they are easy to stop in the middle of and resume without any confusion.
    

  • u/LiteralHeadCannon:

    Is it okay if each individual playthrough is very short, but over the course of many playthroughs, you learn a lot about the underlying mechanics that you couldn't possibly have guessed on your first playthrough?
    
    'Cuz my main timewaster as of late is HyperRogue, a roguelike that's currently [$3 on Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/342610/).  It's a really excellent game set in non-Euclidean space; it's also updated frequently by the developer with new areas and bug fixes.
    

    • u/Chronophilia:

      Seconded. There's a free demo too, which lags one version behind the main game. As of two weeks ago, it just got to the update with the World Overview, which I think enormously improves the game.
      

  • u/raymestalez:

    [Go game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game) is pretty amazing.
    
    It is extremely fascinating and interesting. Rules are simple but very deep, and playing is satisfying and engaging at any skill level. You can start having fun within 20 minutes after learning the rules, and it will stay fun 10 years in.
    
    I am sure that people on this sub will enjoy it a lot, so if you haven't tried it - you should.
    
    There's a great website [OGS](https://online-go.com) - it is very well done, and you can play against real people over there.
    
    I have also bought myself "SmartGo Kifu" app for my iPad, and it is perfect(but expensive). It has a lot lf exercises, very smart AI, and all kinds of useful options, it's really great. I've been playing for hours in the past few days, can't stop.
    
    There's also a great [youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/sundaygolessons) to learn theory, I highly recommend it.
    
    Because there are different board sizes, game can last anywhere between 10 minutes and several hours, your choice. And exercises work like very fun puzzles, which you can solve under a minute, and it is very enjoyable.
    
    ----
    
    Also I bet you guys would like Zork and other text adventures, they're very fun.
    

  • u/Rhamni:

    > Corruption of Champions
    
    I'm surprised to see it recommended as a short play session game, but... I guess that is very accurate. And it's nice. Plenty of customizability and replay value.
    

    • u/None:

      Just a heads up, but I suggest playing Trials in Tainted Space instead; it has less content but it's being updated and it has a better interface.
      
      Also, it's more female friendly compared to CoC.
      

  • u/OutOfNiceUsernames:

    All of the following games have several things in common: 
    
    * they are multiplayer (except for *Captain Forever*);
    * they are free-to-play, with restrictions posed upon them by their monetization scheme not affecting the gameplay too drastically for those who decide to not pay;
    * generally, they do not require investing large amounts of time to gain in-game unlockable advantage over other players (e.g. levelling up a character, unlocking skills, etc);
    * You can perform well in them with only gaining sufficient knowledge and skills regarding the game’s mechanics. 
    
    ----
    
    * [*Astroflux*](http://www.astroflux.net/) ([K](http://www.kongregate.com/games/fulafiskenab/astroflux)) — A space simulator, which I’d say has some similarities with Mass Effect series. You can visit different planetary systems, land on planets to collect resources and complete quests, attack other players and steal from them, etc.
     * (+) the game’s design allows your imagination to work and fill in the blanks on its own.
     * (-) unlocking more powerful ships requires in-game currency, which can be bought with real money. It is possible to “win” against other players without doing so, however, if you develop a smart gameplay style.
     * (-) Once you investigate all the currently-developed planetary systems, the gameplay will likely become repetitive.
    * [*Captain Forever*](http://www.captainforever.com/captainforever.php) — You attack and destroy other ships, and then upgrade your own using the remaining debris.
    * [*GameOfBombs*](https://gameofbombs.com/) — Multiplayer version of the classic Bomberman, basically. Having a good reaction will give a significant advantage.
     * (-) the later versions have become needlessly overcomplicated with lootable power-boosting items, IMO.
    * [*KDice*](http://www.kdice.com/) — [Multiplayer version](http://imgur.com/KHAZhfA) of [Dice Wars](http://www.kongregate.com/games/trucbidule/dice-wars). 
     * (+) Players can negotiate to cooperate with each other in short-term, can betray each other later.
     * (-) Don’t remember any, though admittedly I haven’t played it for a while and things might’ve changed.
    * [*Mitos.is*](http://mitos.is/) ([S](http://store.steampowered.com/app/389570/)) — Here you control a cell, which can get bigger by grazing or hunting smaller cells, split up to 8 smaller cells, feed allies or ambush bigger cells to steal matter from them.
     * (+) Players can negotiate to cooperate with each other.
     * (-) The current game mechanics makes cooperation in the Free-for-all mode overpowered.
     * (-) Higher level cells\players have some unfair advantages over lower level ones.
     * (-) Currently world-maps are too small, in my opinion (e.g. compared to GameOfBombs).
    * [*Realm of the Mad God*](http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/) ([K](http://www.kongregate.com/games/wild_shadow/realm-of-the-mad-god) | [S](http://store.steampowered.com/app/200210/)) — Having a good reaction will give a significant advantage. This is a [\[bullet hell\]](http://i.imgur.com/rvKPr7a.gif) game, in which the player gets rewarded for correctly deciphering/anticipating enemies’ shooting patterns and the general movement of dangerous elements on the entire screen. It is possible to kill many bosses without any “top”-level equipment at all (though they help) if one stays concentrated and has the know-how.
     * (+) Once a character dies, all the gained levels and items disappear with him. This removes many advantages that older players would otherwise have over newcomers.
     * (-) Storage capacity is severely limited to indulge players in investing real money.
     * (-) One lag that’s out of your control can kill your character and waste hours of time that was spent developing it.
    
    p.s. Since CoC was mentioned, I guess I’ll throw in [Sakyubasu No Tatakai I](http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/598364).
    

  • u/ketura:

    Why, Nethack of course!  But that's because I hate myself.
    

  • u/ArgentStonecutter:

    [LYNE](http://www.lynegame.com/)
    
    The QUELL series (Quell, Quell Reflect, Quell Memento)
    

• u/cae_jones:

  I took a look at my failed RaNoWriMo project and realized that, in spite of it failing to do what I wanted it to do, it felt like something I could convince myself to share with r/rational.
  
  That said, I don't trust my judgment on this particularly much, and also don't really have many options for less publicly-requested betas, so... anyone willing to beta?  What it was supposed to be is not important, since what it turned into spent way too much time talking about simulations. It's also unfinished (there are only 7 complete chapters and the beginnings of an eighth, for a total of 12050 words). I can't promise that it's any good in general, only that I reread it a couple times and didn't hate it as much as I expected.
  

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