Zezzy [she/her]

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Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: January 8th, 2021

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  • To pick a nit – last I heard, no scholar believes that runes can be read, pronounced, or that we have access to any ancient tradition of meaning. Modern runic divination is based on intuitive interpretation – well and good, but a flimsy basis for reconstructing lost languages and cultures.

    Am I just not understanding the authors point or is this like, completely wrong? Linguistics is a real field, and there has been a lot of study into runes and the Germanic language family (probably too much study, considering the issue with Eurocentrism throughout linguistics). Wikipedia is pretty detailed about the different eras and how the runes were pronounced and changed.

    The point about modern Runic Divination being vibes based looks to be true, but it seems wrong to bring it up unprompted and conflate the two.






  • I didn’t want to pick a fight with 5e people, but we found it unsalvagable and moved on. Anything kind of campaign we could run in it would work better in some other system we know.

    No one I know has played Pathfinder 2e since the playtest, but the low success rates and weakened spells made it feel like a very slow slapstick comedy. I heard some of that was from math issues that were later fixed.

    We are considering trying it again, but I keep on getting caught up on the loss of things I loved in 1e, like constant flight or not having to take actions for your minions.


  • I think spell slots are really neat when you take advantage of them like 3.5/Pathfinder did. Each slot was prepared separately, could be left unprepared and then prepared out of combat to adapt to the day, and had lots of metamagic options to make use of different level slots.

    But by the time of 5e, slots don’t seem to have any purpose beyond lowering caster flexibility. When we were playing we ruled spontaneous casters could use spell points instead of slots to give them an edge up on the prepared ones.

    3.0/3.5/Pathfinder also used Power Points for its psionics instead of slots, and that worked very well. Shame 5e doesn’t have psionics.




  • BG3 early spoilers, gore, social-media transphobia

    What is with that gnoll chestbursters combat outside of the Blighted Village? I thought they were a normal mortal species (although “savage”), and they haven’t had this origin in any of the editions of D&D I’ve played.

    I remember when Volo’s guide came out there was some controversy about one of the devs (Mearls I think?) saying gnolls were too evil to be playable, so maybe D&D has moved towards making them more monstrous? Or already had some time in 4e? My group plays Pathfinder, but we’ve gone to gnoll cities there, made gnoll allies, had gnoll party members, and did normal adventuring stuff in their lands.

    I’m probably just on edge since I just read some chud talking about putting trans people “out of their misery”, which is the same phrasing used to pre-emptively kill the “Newborn Gnoll” as a druid. But the whole thing left me feeling icky. Shut off the game there. Probably will just switch to trying to finish Disco Elysium again


  • Chauncer and Shakespeare use singular they, while the push for gender neutral “he” was much later, in the 1700s and 1800s. So from this view singular they is descriptive of how language has been used for hundreds of years, while arguing that it’s a mistake or wrong would be prescriptive. And this is just anecdotal, but everyone where I live uses singular they (at least for unspecified gender people), even my grandma who uses old words and has heated elder moments.

    But even if singular they usage was brand new, I wouldn’t consider advocacy as a form of prescriptivism. Prescriptivism usually comes from places of authority over language, like education and publishing, and states what’s right and wrong to use. I don’t see he-or-she being defined as incorrect by advocates of singular they, just clunky and exclusive. Not so much “this is wrong” as “we can do better than that”. An appeal for niceness and understanding, rather than an accusation of improper language.

    People stop using words and phrases all the time, both intentionally or just picked up from their environment. Some words become offensive and others become disused, leading to them falling out of favor, and new words are coined all the time, sometimes as direct replacements. Just the inevitable evolution of language.

    Wikipedia does state that it may include politically correct language under the label, but I don’t normally see that used in linguistic discussions in my experience. I would be hesitant to include that under it, since it seems to kinda stretch the definition to the point of not-super-usefulness where asking someone to stop saying slurs or correcting your name could be seen as prescriptivism. But of course, language is determined by its speakers, so if you would include those under it go ahead.

    Sorry that was pretty rambly, but basically I don’t think its prescriptivist to ask someone to change their language to not hurt others.