funniest alignment possible honestly, the bible is right about everything and you should do everything it says except the dozens of chapters about worshiping, or even believing in God.... awesome

Contrary to what some may think, we actually do have Satan in Judaism. He's just less of an all-powerful king of Hell and adversary to G-d (because to suggest anyone can be an adversary to G-d is heretical), and more if Saul Goodman was prosecuting you as a lawyer and could be fooled into missing his court date if you blew a horn outside his house every day of the month except the day before the court date and confused him.

13th century mysticism explained:

Judaism: "Finally, after years of careful study, we have developed the most powerful mystical secret in history: a new way to read the Torah."

Christianity: "We are NOTHING like those godless pagans. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to starve myself and pray so hard that I hallucinate a dancing corpse saint."

Islam: "Skill issue. It's not magic if you're really good at citing the Quran. Get syncretized idiot."

I think it's actually really important to treat the GM as another player. The GM is there to have fun just as much as the other players.

Of course the GM shouldn't have fun at the expense of the other players. But the converse also applies. If the players make it a point to ruin the GM's plans or not engage with what the GM has brought then that's also a bad group dynamic.

What this also means is that the GM doesn't need to be the only one with access to system mastery. In fact, the best way to avoid GM burnout is by sharing some of the administrative burden. Maybe instead of turning to the GM (who is already having to shuffle between their notes and NPC stats and clocks and dials) for rules question you turn to the Rules Lawyer (who gets a lot of unnecessary flak imo, like why is game mastery something that is actively demonized in the hobby?). If you're playing one of them cool combat minigames with lots of initiatives and statuses and so on to keep track of then maybe elect one of the players who's good with that sort of thing as the Combat Tracker.

But okay I mentioned that it's not the GM's job to have fun at the expense of the players, right? But there's kayfabe. Basically, in some contexts the GM is playing the role of the heel to the players' faces. In certain games the game itself benefits from the GM pretending to be the players' worst enemy even though in reality their job is to make the players look good. Sometimes it does mean pretending to kick the players down so they can rise again.

But that being the case, I think this is something that also should be addressed while setting the expectations for a game. "In this game I won't be pulling punches but it's not because I want to see you fail, but because I want to see you succeed in spite of adversity." Or "I will mostly plan encounters so you can easily breeze through them so you get to shine, but sometimes I will throw a curveball to make victory seem more sweet."

no fourth option. you have to pick.

Lysander, softly, holding a gun to Darrow’s head: Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all, Reaper, and he comes for you now. So, as a final courtesy, I ask: who is your favorite poet?

Darrow, utterly unimpressed: Sevro Barca

Lysander: Seriously?

Darrow: *raises an eyebrow*

Lysander, sighing: Fine. If your heart beats like a drum—

I WAS RIGHT! I WAS SO RIGHT!

He went from "GRRRR" to "ah Hello, Mr. lane"

"It's General Lane" 😂😂😂

I haven't seen too many posts about this and if you don't know that much about Superman lore it's SPOILERS for My Adventures With Superman but...

What the hell is Clark's reaction going to be when he finds out the general is Lois's dad?

This guy who's been basically hunting him for most of the season who just let him go and was almost killed by his people way back and all that stuff. It's gonna be insane. He's going to be caught halfway between "hello sir I'm dating your daughter, I'll have her back by 10" and "AHHHHHH"

the mighty nein - critical role

this is a place where i don't feel alone. this is a place where i feel at home.

here’s a what should be a cold take but i know it’ll be taken as a scalding one: 

inter-party conflict is good for storytelling, tension, and characterization and growth. aversion to conflict just creates wet noodle characters that are uninteresting. a story without conflict or tension isn’t a good story. 

the metatron is one of my favorite angels simply because the five year old in me is delighted by the fact that there's an actual real angel canonical to several religious texts with a name that makes it sound like a giant evil robot

Percy literally has a pen on him at all times and he never, not once, thinks to write any of these big important end of the world prophecies down.

The most unrealistic thing in pjo is everyone remembering prophecies word for word after hearing them once

I haven't seen too many posts about this and if you don't know that much about Superman lore it's SPOILERS for My Adventures With Superman but...

What the hell is Clark's reaction going to be when he finds out the general is Lois's dad?

This guy who's been basically hunting him for most of the season who just let him go and was almost killed by his people way back and all that stuff. It's gonna be insane. He's going to be caught halfway between "hello sir I'm dating your daughter, I'll have her back by 10" and "AHHHHHH"

I’m not a classicist, but I suspect one of the reasons so many of the Greek gods are portrayed so unflatteringly was less because they were seen as villains than because they represented their domains.  Of course Zeus sometimes misuses his power, that’s what a king does.  Of course Artemis’s wrath is wild and painful, that’s what nature can be.  Of course Hades snatched away a young girl from her mother’s arms, that’s what death does.  This is one of the reasons callout posts for some gods comparing them negatively to ‘nicer’ gods are kind of missing the point.