Freeze Peach!

If you've spent any amount of time on online forums, you've probably seen it happen. A new poster arrives, and proceeds to make an ass of himself. (It is very rarely "herself".) If your forum is a good one, a moderator soon appears and makes it plain that the new guy needs to chill. 

In most cases, it ends there. The new guy either learns to plays nice or slinks off to find another forum with looser standards of civility. But all too often, the asshole digs in his heels. 

The arguments are always the same: This is a matter of principle! The right to be a jerk is the most important thing!  People are too thin-skinned! Moderation is a violation of Free Speech! The mods are a bunch of fascists! 

The forum locals have a good laugh at his feeble arguments, blind arrogance, and self-centered pleading. Eventually the mods get tired of his impotent raging against the machine and ban him. The last few years have seen this same experience played out on a larger scale. 

The rise and fall of free to play

I love the idea of pay-what-you-want. It warms my socialist heart to see a work of art thrive in spite of being available free. Welcome to Night Vale is a good example. Any web comic or you tube show with a Patreon button qualifies. There are a lot of those, and many of them are successful. Those who have money to spare subsidize those who do not.

That's why I'm a big fan of free-to-play games. It's an easy thing to do badly, of course. But done well, it can allow a pay-what-you-want experience to make enough money to support the massive development expense of a AAA game.

Fin puts the bi in bicep curls.

 By Fernacular.

D&D 5 Homebrew Magic items A-Z, part 1

The magic items chapter int the 5th ed Dungeon Master's Guide has just a few gaps. I've been trying my hand at re-creating some old favorites in the Fifth edition idiom. Just for kicks, I'll post them in alphabetical order. (Because all the ones starting with A are already done.)