sbf

joined 7 months ago
[–] sbf@feddit.org 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Thanks for the opportunity to vent my love for gravel bikes.

Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

My father is also a road cyclist, so I didn't grow up on mountain/hybrid bikes like most other children do; road bikes are pretty much all I know. I'd love to dip into other disciplines, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a bike and then find out I don't like it. However, I do fully agree with your point about road bikes being restrictive; I often have to take longer, much busier routes around my town when I could just take one of the many trails that go all throughout it. I don't plan on doing any sort of technical trails, but I'd still like to have the ability to do the most basic of off-roading.

The thing is, I don't really care about the number on my bike computer/watch's speedometer. I just want to feel fast; I want to feel the wind, the rattle of the bike against the road, the momentum shift as I lean into a corner. That's what I enjoy. From what I'm reading, you seem to get that very same thing! Perhaps gravel bikes aren't too bad after all ;)

 

I am a road cyclist, and I intend on getting a new bike soon. I'd like to use it to zoom around town for fun like I already do on my road bike, but I also want to be able to commute with it. As such, I'd like it to be able to handle light grass and dirt when I need to (no mud, gravel, excessive drops, etc). I've been thinking about a gravel or cross bike, but they're just not quite "zoomy" enough for me; I like more aggressive geometry and a nice, aero frame. Additionally, there has been a growing trend for thicker tires on road bikes, so a modern road bike should be able to fit cross tires. Should I just get a new road bike and throw some 33mm cross tires on it? Or should I suck it up and get a cross/gravel bike that's actually designed for dirt? On one hand I want to zoom and won't be on dirt/grass all that much, but on the other I don't want to ruin an expensive bike by taking it off-road when I shouldn't. Help a brother out.

 

I’ve been researching and saving for the Light Phone III for a while, but there’s just one thing that’s making me hesitant about getting it: music streaming. I have no problem with downloading all of my music, but that prevents me from discovering new songs that Spotify or YouTube Music or whatever recommends me. I feel like I’m going to miss it in situations I can’t have my laptop (like on long drives).

What do you miss most?

[–] sbf@feddit.org 9 points 1 month ago

Things have to get real bad before people realize they need to get better. I’m hoping that happens here

 

I want that REAL spicy stuff. Not that crap labeled "Medium"

(I'm in the US/Germany btw)

[–] sbf@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago

LibreOffice for the win

[–] sbf@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not once have I encountered one. I don’t mind them, though

[–] sbf@feddit.org 43 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

During Helene, I had a tree fall through my house while I was in bed, and it stopped about 6 inches from my face

[–] sbf@feddit.org 7 points 2 months ago

I fully agree, lol. I browse ich_iel with reading glasses and a dictionary

[–] sbf@feddit.org 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m learning German, too! I took 3 years in school and wanted to continue my education on my own. So far, it’s… going

[–] sbf@feddit.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Remember the Titans. Absolute cinema

[–] sbf@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

HUGE second on all of these

[–] sbf@feddit.org 4 points 2 months ago

All of my interests are niche, so this SHOULD happen to me all the time. The thing is, I have about 40,000,000 of them, so I usually get inspired to work on something else when I get bored

 

Comparatively to the rest of the internet, it seems like there are a lot more Germans here. I’ve always assumed it was just because I was on a German instance and was in a sort of echo chamber (join feddit.org btw 🥳), but I just checked Fediverse Observer and it’s the 2nd largest country by users. Additionally, the German instances seem to be the biggest non-English ones.

Why is this?

[–] sbf@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago

It had it coming

[–] sbf@feddit.org 8 points 2 months ago

Nope. It has to come straight from the starfish

 

My RPG group and I (mostly the latter) have spent the past few months working on a setting-generic RPG system. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! I'm quite proud of it as I haven't really seen very many dice systems like this. The system has character specialization (some are better at things than others) without any modifiers or math, just comparison!

Creating a Character

Players need only decide two things when creating their characters: their action die and their approach die.

A character’s “action die” broadly describes their physical attributes, skills, and talents.

  • Intelligent, thoughtful, and quick-witted characters use a six-sided action die.
  • Charismatic, charming, and attractive characters use an eight-sided action die.
  • Agile, dexterous, and swift characters use a ten-sided action die.
  • Strong, powerful, and tough characters use a twelve-sided action die.

A character’s “approach die” broadly describes their outlook on the world and how they go about executing their skills.

  • Sharp, perceptive, and attentive characters use a six-sided approach die.
  • Forceful, reactive, and fiery characters use an eight-sided approach die.
  • Disciplined, courageous, and willful characters use a ten-sided approach die.
  • Calm, level-headed, and careful characters use a twelve-sided approach die.

Attempts

Characters may do any of four things to interact with their environment: engage, consort, finesse, or exert. These are known as “actions.”

  • To “engage” is to interact with an object or place using intense focus and care.
  • To “consort” is to persuade, deceive, or otherwise communicate with others.
  • To “finesse” is to maneuver one’s body in a precise, swift, and calculated manner.
  • To “exert” is to use raw, physical strength.

Characters may go about an action any of four ways: sharply, forcefully, boldly, or calmly. These are known as “approaches.”

  • To be “sharp” is to be perceptive, keen, and attentive.
  • To be “forceful” is to explode with reckless power and speed.
  • To be “bold” is to overcome one’s fears or anxieties.
  • To be “calm” is to remain composed under pressure or threat.

If ever a player wishes to do something, they must first describe it to the narrator, who will then determine the action and approach that best fits. Players will automatically succeed in most of their endeavors, but the outcome of riskier or more unpredictable ones is determined by rolling their two dice and counting successes. This is known as an “attempt.”

For a die to yield a success, the number rolled must fall within the corresponding range for that category. (This is supposed to be in table form but most front-ends don't support Markdown tables.)

  • Engage/Sharp: 3--6
  • Consort/Forceful: 4--8
  • Finesse/Bold: 5--10
  • Exert/Calm: 6--12

Zero successes result in the attempt failing, one success results in the attempt succeeding, and two successes result in the attempt critically succeeding.

If ever the manner in which a character does something has no effect on its outcome, the player may roll two action dice and no approach die. If ever only the manner in which a character does something has an effect on its outcome, the player may roll two approach dice and no action die.

If the narrator believes that a player’s attempt should be easier or harder than usual, they may increase the number of dice the player rolls. If it is to be harder, the number of required successes increases. If it is to be easier, it does not.

Combat

Many direct competitions require more mechanical structure to ensure every party has a fair chance at victory. In situations such as these, “combat” may be initiated.

Combat is divided into rounds, during each of which, all participating characters make an attempt to win. As the attempts are being made, the narrator writes them down in a list, using the number on the approach die of each to order them from lowest to highest. To end the round and begin another, the narrator reads through their finalized list and describes to the players what happens. If ever a previous attempt—such as the killing of a character—prevents the current attempt—such as that character striking back—from occurring, it automatically fails.

Wounds & Stress

If ever a character is inflicted with some sort of physical injury or mental affliction, they must roll their action or approach die, respectively, and then scratch that number from the corresponding list on their character sheet. This is known as taking a “wound” or “stress” on that number. In the future, if ever an action die rolls a number with a wound, or an approach die rolls a number with a stress, it automatically yields a failure, regardless of whether or not it would normally fall within the succeeding range.

If ever a player receives a wound and no longer has a possible succeeding action roll, they die. If ever they receive a stress and no longer have a possible succeeding approach roll, they go insane. Both permanently remove the character from the game.

When determining how many wounds or stresses an event inflicts, it is important for narrators to note that one character may be killed in only six wounds, and another twelve. The same attempt should have the same effect on both of these characters. A successful attempt may result in zero-to-two wounds depending on the context of the attempt, and a critically successful one may result in two-to-four. A failure always results in zero.

Non-Player Characters

Non-player characters (NPCs)—especially unintelligent or narratively unimportant ones such as goons, objects, animals, and the environment—function differently to the players’ characters. Rather than being limited only by the creativity of the narrator, each NPC has a unique list of specific actions and approaches, each with their own, unique succeeding ranges. This is known as their “attempt table.” During combat, NPCs have no volition; what they do is randomly determined by rolling and indexing into their attempt table.

Downtime

In between important or especially grueling scenes, players may choose to have downtime. During “downtime,” rather than describing their exact actions in the present moment, the narrator and players broadly discuss what they are doing over a matter of days, weeks, or even months. This could include purchasing new equipment, training, searching for information, or taking time to recover from an injury.

Players are given special agency during downtime; they should be allowed to affect the narrative in ways they wouldn't normally be able to during play. A player might come up with a piece of information they would like their character to find or create an individual they would like them to meet. However, the narrator always has the final say and must agree to what the players propose before it becomes canon; not everything can fit into their existing narrative.

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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by sbf@feddit.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
 

For me, it’s tortilla chips and ketchup…

Edit: Alright, if I get sick of your fault

 

I'm quite partial to Tesseract.

 

Yesterday, I submitted a post asking for your help in creating a global auxiliary conlang. With not much interest being shown in the first day of posting, I decided to go ahead and embark on this project alone.

Phonology & Orthography

My "north star" when designing the phonemic inventory for the language was striking a balance between usability and accessibility. In my humble opinion, minimalist languages such as Toki Pona excel in the latter but utterly fail in the former. More complicated languages such as Esperanto and Ido tend to do the opposite (they can be quite eurocentric). I believe I have found a happy medium between the two.

Consonants

The language's consonants (and their graphs) are as follows:

  • Stops: /p^h^/ (p), /b/, /t^h^/ (t), /d/, /k^h^/ (k), /g/
  • Fricatives: /f/, /s/, h /x~h/ (h)
  • Nasals: /m/, /n/
  • Approximants: /w/, /l/, /j/
  • Rhotic: /r~ʀ~ɾ~ɺ~ɹ~ɻ~ʁ~.../ (r)

I have chosen to aspirate the unvoiced stops to allow speakers from more languages to distinguish them. Those who's native tongue distinguises stops on aspiration can use [p^h^] and [p] for /p^h^/ and /b/, respectively, and those who's native tongue does so on voice can use [p] and [b].

Rhotics vary wildly cross-linguistically, making including one in a lingua franca very difficult. However, with how I plan to derive the language's vocabulary, doing so seemed necessary. As such, I have coined the "whatever the heck rhotic." So long as the sound produced is a rhotic, it is the "correct" phoneme for . However, speakers who are able to produce multiple rhotics should use some discretion when deciding which one they use as some can be harder to distinguish than others.

My decision to include the remaining consonants simply came down to their presence cross-linguistically. I initially planned to create a heat map of the IPA with each phoneme's "temperature" being a weighted sum of its occurrences in the languages on Ethnologue's list of the most spoken languages, but the work required for that seemed to outweigh the benefit. As such, I did what every self-respecting linguist would do and eyeballed it!

Vowels

The language's vowels are as follows:

  • High: /i/, /u/
  • Mid: /e/, /o/
  • Low: /a/

Ah, the ol' five-vowel system, tried and true. I mean, there's not much to say here. Moving on!

Phonotactics

The language's phonotactic rules are largely inspired by those of Toki Pona. They are as follows:

  1. All syllables follow a (C)V(S) structure, where "S" denotes a sonorant that is not /w/ or /j/.
  2. Null onsets are word-initial only.
  3. No adjacent sonorants; codas always assimilate to following onsets.
  4. Words may be no longer than three syllables.
  5. To reduce sliding, /j/ is only permitted before /a, o, u/, and /w/ is only so before /a, e, i/.
  6. The penultimate vowel is always stressed.

Final Thoughts

This may not be much, but I am trying to refrain from hyperfixating and making everything too quickly as I want your thoughts on every step I take. What do you like so far? What could be improved?

Collaborators are always welcome!

Edit: Typos (of course)

 

Never made an international auxlang, nor have I ever collaborated on a conlang project as none of my friends are into linguistics. Thought I’d kill three birds with one stone. Who’s in? I’ll probably use Google Docs, LibreOffice, or one of the many collaborative Markdown editors out there.

 

I'd like to get back into playing video games, but I don't want to have to sign up for an online service like Steam or Ubisoft Connect.

I love technical sandbox games like Scrap Mechanic, especially if they have a "creative mode" that allows me to just make stuff.

 

I’m an earl grey with honey man, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never really tried much else.

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