Generative AI is just machine learning, the same as the magic tool. The difference is in application with one being used for prediction and the other for generation. The two are more alike than they are dissimilar.

I wonder if the artist will get fired for using the magic select tool in Photoshop. That uses AI / machine learning too. It’s literally just using AI to highlight AI generated items.

I wasn’t sure either, but per Wikipedia: “It is an adaptation of “The Captain’s Log”, a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.”

I’m pretty sure The Captains Log was the basis of the Elizabeth Dane in VtM: Bloodlines.

Moonlight/Sunlight are both really great options. The only problem I’ve encountered with either is that the mouse cursor is encoded into the video stream itself. It adds a little bit of lag when moving the mouse and makes it feel not quite right. Steam doesn’t encode to the stream, so it feels much more responsive. Parsec doesn’t either, but it does not support hardware decoding in Linux so you’re going to be stuck with an added ~10ms decode time.

Just because this level of cringey fanboying should never be tolerated, here is a hurtful fact: Valve has argued in court that they are a subscription service and you do not in fact own any game in your library. https://hothardware.com/news/valve-loses-french-court-battle

For me I play MTGA. Honestly, I’m not into competitive play and just like the social aspect and having fun. Arena isn’t the best for the social aspect as its more just speed matches, but maybe they’ll release a chat system with that at some point. There is a large number of players, so finding matches is easy enough, and although the cards are completely worthless in Arena (you can’t trade them) they also don’t have a real world cost to them. I’m terrible at pricing, but I would figure I have around $500-$600 worth of cards in Arena. Again, they are totally worhtless and non-transferrable (which would be an issue if they decided to discontinue the platform), but I haven’t spent any money on them either.

Hey, maybe not quite video gaming, but have you thought about getting into DnD or Vampire: The Masquerade? DnD has lots of open groups to find on Discord or services like Roll20. That gives you voice communication so you are talking and playing with real people. VtM isn’t as popular, but is a really great setting and does have at least one massive Discord server for RPing with others (https://discord.com/servers/seattle-by-night-517427294915002371).

I can understand your attitude towards MMOs. I really want to like them myself and keep retrying them, but somehow they end up being more isolating then single player games. I think so much of their content is based around group play that if you somehow manage to go full hermit mode in them like I do, they don’t really work. Single player games emulation human interactions so feel more rewarding somehow.

Since you mentioned GW2, you might try other games like that if it worked for you. WoW, Elder Scrolls Online, FF14. The Payday series might also be a good match as it has auto teaming and voice chat. I would probably stay away from card games like MTG: Arena though. Those are incredibly fun, but are based on fast paced matchmaking with little user to user interaction possible.

That might have been me asking for it, but if you find a mod to that, please let me know! https://lemm.ee/comment/2161312

SFP is pretty straightforward. Most of the SFP modules you can buy you just connect and they work. For something like that, you would be doing fiber to ethernet hand off at a switch. Then you have pretty much everything run to the switch including router and just VLAN isolate. It’s not super complicated, but if you never messed with VLANs it might be better to go with something pre-packaged unless you’re up for learning.

You could also do a DIY router and run a multi-gig SFP+ network card over PCIe. You still have to purchase a separate SFP module for that, but that is another option.

There are some people who actually study probability patterns in randomness. That subjects beyond me, but a quick summary of what they usually say is that something like what you’re describing or triplets or various other things are actually quite common and don’t disprove randomness.

Just one example of a conversation like that: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1132058/why-does-randomness-exhibit-a-pattern-in-the-long-run

Because you’ve already expended your spell slots for that level.

I set up a backup cell connection to my cable internet connection. Sketchy Chinese 4G LTE modem. My router was a DIY job I set up off of Ubuntu Server. Everything ran to a Cisco switch and then was VLAN isolated. For the two WAN connections, I ran scripts from the router that periodically tried to reach out to several DNS providers and then average response rates to determine if the main connection was up. If not then it would modify default routes and push everything to the cell.

The cell connection had pretty low data cap, so it was just for backup and wasn’t a home style plan. I used the old TTL modification trick to get it to pass data like a phone. When I moved the backup to 5G, TTL modification stopped working and I had to resort to creating tunnel interfaces to an actual phone. Since that tunnel is limited in bandwidth to the lowest value, my speeds were really cut in half.

I disagree with some of their assessment. Specifically the point that you really aren’t given enough information to weigh out which decisions you go with and that is something problematic. Unknowns are pretty inherent with Dungeons and Dragons. In tabletop, you typically don’t know what the outcome is going to be. You can only veer towards decisions you think will be a net positive and then hope you make your rolls.

With a couple of exceptions, no decision you make is really game over for you. It just changes how the story unfolds.

Gluttony might be an interesting idea. It’s not necessarily necromantic, but the idea of using magic to force a person to eat until they cannot continue and literally rupture.

Or, and this probably sounds stupid, but you could have a modified form of the grease spell that’s just wet noodles. I don’t know if you’ve ever stepped/slipped on wet noodles, but it’s disgusting and traumatic.

Before Baldur’s Gate was a thing, I remember reading Homeland by RA Salvatore. It was 1994 and my sister gave it to be as a bday present. I couldn’t put it down and it firmly cemented me into Dungeons & Dragons. I already had been playing some gold box games like Hillsfar, but that book got me seriously addicted.

I just read that in my mind in the narrator’s voice.

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My take on this is that Shar knew about the prism, but simply just did not care. Sharran documents like to refer to the Dead Three as “godlings” which makes a lot of sense from the perspective of Shar. She’s old. Like really old. To her the Dead Three are not much more than mortals who tricked their way into a fractional amount of power, so their machinations are childlike at best and nowhere near on the scope of what Shar is capable of.

I agree though that Shar wouldn’t thematically ever make any personal appearance or have any direct involvement with any of her plots. That isn’t her style. She would whisper commands to super high level followers, but even then never divulge the why of it. You would just get orders not explanations.