I agree!! I tried to parse my own comment as “hey this is a big fat opinion soup” just because the alignment chart is highly debated and often forgone entirely as too restrictive. Lots of motivations that buck the chart entirely.

Chaotic and lawful are opposite ends of the matrix, evil and good are similarly opposites. Ignoring neutrality, we can look at a punnet square-esque 2x2 grid of chaotic good - chaotic evil -lawful good - lawful evil

The way I see it (and this is a hotly debated topic, so it’s all pretty firmly in the realm of interpretation) is that lawful good is akin to a benevolent government, chaotic good is akin to Robinhood, lawful evil is akin to a fascist regime or dictatorship, chaotic evil is akin to the joker.

There’s a lot of nuance between those extremes, of course, but to make broad strokes you can ask “are they working within or without a strong system” to get lawful vs chaotic, and “are they trying to help others or hurt others” to get good and evil.

Using those questions gives a good basis to start dissecting people and characters.

Hitler worked within the political system to create a new totalitarian regime and harm the people who fell outside it. Lawful evil.

Robinhood flaunted laws and committed crimes in the pursuit of helling those in need. Chaotic good.

You’ll note that chaotic, whether good or evil, doesn’t build societies or ideologies. They’re more focused on their own goals. Lawful creates structure for societies to confirm to.

I had to install a network adapter driver the other day. Had to use my wife’s computer to download into a flash drive and bring it over to my computer with zero network connectivity.

Granted, this only happened because my network card was broken.

I’ve heard of polyphia but never listened to them. The fact you recommended them next to Snarky Puppy was what got me to look them up, and WOW!

True, financial literacy is pretty lacking, but that’s more of an education issue than “their fault”

Most dealerships and banks will happily approve a loan that’s too high to be realistic. It’s predatory, I make $20/hr and got approved for up to $300k for a mortgage. I bought a house worth half that and it’s still a lot. Just feel like banks really shouldn’t let people sign loans worth 80% of their monthly income

Ayy ;)

I’ve read a series called “Galaxy’s Edge”, and in it, the 1% on earth had furthered their stranglehold on media, propaganda, resources, etc, and Earth was finally crumbling. Food wars, corporate armies, the whole shebang. Eventually, the 1% pooled their resources together to just leave Earth on massive colony ships, ditching the unwashed masses to die in pursuit of a new start.

What makes me laugh is that once they all dipped, earth just… Recovered. Got through the hard times and developed hyperdrive to jump off into the stars themselves, getting to all the planets thousands of years before the slower-than-light colony ships the original 1% left in. When they finally start emerging from the dark of interstellar space, their zealous beliefs that they’re the most important people in the universe has convinced them to chase down fucked up biotech and they’re all post human monstrosities hell bent on destroying the “animals” who have lived in relative harmony without their existence.

Can’t help but feel like that rings a bell. The billionaires will rape our planet to death and then just dust off in private space ships leaving us for dead. If we pull through, they’ll come back to keep raping.

I tried explaining that a little bit back, that my house is cheaper for me to own and live in, including ALL expenses, than current apartments of much smaller size, and some person (probably a landlord) engaged in a back and forth with me basically calling me a dirty liar over and over.

Yes, 24, army taught me on deployment. It was fun! I’m tempted to get a manual on my next car, but I’d like my wife to be able to use it :P

Mind flayers (the “Cthulhu”) are prominent bad guys in DnD, super popular. They’re canonically aberrations from a different realm, so they’re designed to be freaky Lovecraft aliens. Idk if you’re saying BG3 looks weird or crazy, but aliens and spelljammer space-ship like things are established canon in DnD, the source material.

Thermonuclear take; the kind of work it takes to perform well in school is exactly the kind of work society is preparing kids for, so good school performance can still be a strong indication they’ll be good employees.

Wether or not our society and schools are right for that is a much more interesting topic of debate. Kids who crush it in school (and continue to crush it all the way through college) will go on to make their companies loads of money for cheap.

I’m going to go ahead and say yes. Never heard a tin whistle, but recorders sounded decent with light pressure and a mind for intonation. Kids just blast them and don’t even know what intonation is hahaha

Stupid little thing, but in highschool I played in a woodwind ensemble playing bassoon. My friend composed an arrangement of aud lang sine or whatever it’s called for the ensemble for a Christmas concert, and he threw in an 8 bar section where we swapped over to recorders. It was both funny and pretty cool. Sounded great in the hand of good woodwind players.

I agree. I lucked out landing an awesome job with a great work environment, friendly coworkers, and a boss who’s involved and easy to talk to and work with, AND in a field I’m passionate about.

But, if I just had the money to own my house and car and stuff… I wouldn’t work there. I wouldn’t work anywhere. It’s ultimately just a means to an end, even if I think the means are much more palatable than some other jobs I’ve had.

I’ve sat in more than a couple mortar pits in my time, and have pulled rear security for sniper teams.

There’s always technical solutions, ballistic calculators, holds for known targets on mortars, etc, but absolutely no way you’ll catch charlie or a sniper not capable of the mental math to run their weapon system.

Mortars; often they just drive around with truck mounted systems and get sent coords, pull out a map and start calculating, snipers range find and then adjust with the markings in their scopes via mental math. They don’t dial their scope to 648 meters or whatever you’re thinking. I’ll admit I’m less clear on sniper math, but they usually all have notepads with them on performance data, DOPE, of their weapons systems to make needed adjustments to their calculations.

I do want to be clear that the math isn’t crazy, and there’s often tech solutions available, but it’s definitely trained and often practiced.

And mortar men and snipers?

Interesting, the general consensus in rpg spheres I hang out in is that monks are cool and flavorful but dead last mechanically.

I’ve never run the numbers myself, or even played a monk, but I can say at higher levels “stunning strike” beginners pretty impossible to pull off with how high enemies con saves all end up being.

If we really want to split hairs over money, how much would it cost to replace Earth?

Like c’mon, we’re really gonna incinerate our own biosphere over some money? Shouldn’t this be a problem to tackle, spare no expense?

Or they know bragging about it on the Internet without rank to protect them will get them dogpiled.

I could just have been commanded by some softies, but officers don’t generally have the constitution to get personally attacked. Think about it, they literally wrote the rules that say enlisted can go to jail for shit talking them.

I only ever save scum pickpocketting. Years of DnD has taught me that fucking rolls up can often lead to more interesting developments. That being said, I also try to maximize success chances with guidance, finding advantage, building characters to be good at their jobs, etc