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If your dev team needs a comment explaining this I have some serious concerns about their qualifications.

Average annual family income in the US is around $80k/a. Are you seriously suggesting that families should be looking for homes in the $20k to $30k range? What kind of home, exactly, do you think you get for that?

I have also never played RImworld but curiosity got the better of me and against my better judgment I checked to see if you were correct.

You were.

Since you asked:

• Rolling damage against the floor on a miss
• The intimidate check granting a +2 to hit as a free action
• Using Mage Hand to manipulate items that are worn/held by a creature

The damage against the floor is a minor thing, and smashing up the place as a consequence of fighting there is a reasonable bit of extra flavour. I’m not against it.

A free action that grants a skill check to get +2 to hit on your next attack as a reward for missing is wildly disproportionate. There are feats worse than that. If this is a thing people can do why would literally everyone playing not be constantly chewing up the floor in every encounter?

Broadly speaking objects that are worn or held are exempted from automatic manipulation by spells and effects, though this is usually called out in the description of the effect. Telekinesis, which is much stronger than Mage Hand, is one such spell which grants the wearer a save. Then you have things like Catapult, Daylight, or Fireball’s ignition effect, from which held or carried items are flatly immune. Personally I’d consider that grounds to extend that same restriction to Mage Hand.

I’d go so far as to say it’s not just the DM’s prerogative to set DCs for actions the players want to take but literally part of their job as specifically outlined in the core rules on ability checks.

The fact that the DM presumably set a DC for the intimidate check is also not the part here that’s in question.

Yes, completely agreed.

There are also systems much better at this than D&D, which makes calling it out as being the “great” thing here even more out of place.

If you want crunchier rules that have these kind of flavourful interactions you could play PF2e, which literally lets you roll intimidate to debuff your opponent and you have the actions available to do so after swinging your weapon. If you want something looser and more freeform that encourages improvisation maybe take a look at Legend in the Mist or something.

No. These people are welcome to play however they want. They’re having a good time and that’s great for them.

Pitching this as “d&d is great” when the entire story hinges on multiple table specific rulings makes this both less relatable for players of d&d used to a different tone of play and can set unrealistic expectations for new players who might join a game that plays very differently.

I’m not saying they shouldn’t play like this, or that this isn’t d&d. It’s just a very specific scenario that is quite likely to be non-representative of many games.

I’m glad these people are having fun, but I always feel a bit put off when some random group’s homebrew and table rulings are pitched as being typical d&d.

“me at my parents age” is in the future. It’s a hypothetical where Elon has a moon palace, something happened to Greta, and an organised resistance has formed.

Needs a third option then. Swipe right for “would watch”, left for “wouldn’t watch”, but also swipe up for “I strongly endorse and believe you’re enjoy it if you give it a chance”.

Maybe also a fourth. Swipe down for “absolutely not, I know you really love this movie but I just can’t watch more Jason Statham.”

You’re right, it’s not. But in this case it was specifically the “lucky” feature that came into play. Getting the better result through sheer dumb luck is exactly what was supposed to happen.

Also, I strongly disagree with your barbarian hitting a machine example. Rolling a nat 20 attack roll against a machine damages or outright destroys it. I’m not rewarding players for choosing literally the opposite course of action from one that might resolve the problem, no matter what they roll.

If the barbarian wants to try a hail Mary tool proficiency check with their lack of proficiency and -1 intelligence penalty and lucks into a nat 20 for a result of 19 on a DC 17 check then I’ll happily flavour it as “percussive maintenance”, but an attack roll just destroys the machine because that’s what attacks do.

Does the extra fuel you used hauling around your entire launch vehicle not count as waste?

The point of a gift isn’t its material worth.

When I’m picking out a gift for someone I specifically try to pick something that I think they will like and use but is also reflective of my own personal quirks. I’m a bit more tech and DIY inclined then most of my family (clearly, I’m on Lemmy) so most gifts from me tend to be tools or computer related or electronics. Sometimes that’s a miss, sometimes it’s a home run and I get them a gift that never would’ve occurred to them on their own, but they end up using regularly.

The goal is something that fits into their lives while also carrying an element of me that using the gift will remind them of. It’s personal, it’s meaningful, and it exhibits a degree of thoughtfulness that makes the gift special.

All that said… I’d never turn up my nose at a gift card. I’ve received many, I’ve given several. Sometimes you’re just not sure. Sometimes a person has everything you’d think of wanting to give them. Sometimes you just don’t have the time. Sometimes the entire gift-giving ritual is just too much to deal with.

That’s perfectly fine. I will never begrudge someone for choosing a simpler path at a time that’s already fraught with expectation and other assorted stress.

There are groups that actually play FATAL? Terrifying.

Additional “fun” fact about lung over-expansion. The pressure difference necessary for it to happen is startlingly small if you, for some insane reason, completely fill your lungs. You can do damage rising single digit numbers of feet.

I mean, sure, if the writers wanted to put the chip in something else they could write different lore about what it does, granted. In the same spirit of “How do you kill a vampire? However you want.”

The chip specifically interacts with human brains on a biological level. It’s not a “normal” AI.

I don’t think they could. The chip isn’t a normal program that any old computer can run.

It was used to kill the bees.

Ugh. Literally refactored multiple factories into straightforward functions in the most recent sprint where I work.

Someone saw a public factory method which was a factory for a reason and just cargo culted multiple private methods using the same pattern.