optimistic nihilism

Specifically with what titles they would get.

As they usually either relate to the main theme of the film, or an aspect of it.

This is what I came up with.

-Toy Story: What is Friendship?

-A Bug's Life: What is Community?

-Toy Story 2: What is Legacy?

-Monsters, Inc.: Why Should We Use Alternative Means?

-Finding Nemo: What Does It Mean to Be a Parent?

-The Incredibles: What is Identity?

-Cars: Why Should We Make Connections?

-Ratatouille: What is Art?

-Wall-E: What Does It Mean to Live?

-Up: Why Should We Move On?

-Toy Story 3: Should We Let Go?

-Cars 2: How Does One Be A Spy?

-Brave: What are Parental Bonds?

-Monsters University: How Do We Deal with Failure? (or Why Do We Retcon?)

-Inside Out: Why Do Emotions Matter?

-The Good Dinosaur: Why Do We Do Alternate History? (or What is Wasted Potential?)

-Finding Dory: Why Should We Look to Our Past?

-Cars 3: When Should We Pass the Torch?

-Coco: Why Should We Remember Our Family?

-Incredibles 2: What are Gender Roles (or Do We Need Heroes?)

-Toy Story 4: What is One's Purpose?

-Onward: What is Brotherhood?

-Soul: Should We Always Strive for Greatness in Life?

-Luca: Why is Acceptance Important?

-Turning Red: How Do We Deal with Puberty?

-Lightyear: Why Does Andy Have Bad Taste? (or Why Does Pixar Hate Buzz Lightyear of Star Command?)

-Elemental: What is Interracial Love?

-Inside Out 2: How Do We Deal with Adolescence?

-Elio: Where Do We Belong?

College, all of a sudden, went from "something I'd like to do if I can get in" to "a lifeline in an economy where blue collar jobs are going to shit."

A big part of the reason I don't talk a lot about Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as a system is because it's been my experience that, as indie RPG designers, there's a constant temptation to treat a game's culture of play as something which emerges purely from its published text. It'd be super convenient if that were the case: if the ultimate source of the problem is bad game design, then it can be fixed with better game design. In practice, this framing leads people to prattle on about how playing trad RPGs causes brain damage while overlooking the rather more obvious economic incentives for why D&D's culture of play is the way it is.

All that in mind, I tend to look at it the other way 'round: the main problems with D&D5E as a system stem from a shared set of circumstances with its culture of play. Hasbro wants to market 5E as a universal entry-level game, and to that end, they've given Wizards of the Coast a mandate to produce an "evergreen" D&D which appeals equally to fans of all past iterations of the game. This goal is of course both impossible and absurd, and the result is a game whose rules are put together based mostly on vibes, with greater weight given to whether any particular feature is deemed to reinforce D&D's brand identity than to how it actually operates in play, or to how it interacts with other features that have been included in the same fashion.

In the most extreme cases, this leads to a text which pretends to have features it does not in fact possess. For example, 5E wants to have the vibe of a game which cares deeply about logistical play, in order to attract players who like that sort of thing; however, it's also terrified of imposing entry barriers that might interfere with maximising the number of people playing D&D, so you end up with stuff like lengthy stats tables of functionally identical weapons, an economy that denominates prices of adventuring supplies to the hundredth of a gold piece and stops being relevant by level three if you're running the gameplay loop as written, and subsystems for carrying capacity and consumable resource tracking which ask you to do a lot of math for a mechanical impact so insubstantial that it doesn't materially affect said gameplay loop at all if you simply leave it out entirely.

How to work your Pole: tips for Sellsword Arts (and anyone else who’s having trouble)

How to work your Pole: tips for Sellsword Arts (and anyone else who’s having trouble)