Mentat

While I mostly agree, in a one off session within a convention where the adventure needs to be concluded within a certain (usually brief) timeframe, I can be more understanding of the DM more or less gently steering players away from ways to deal with the situation which they think will be long-winded, useless or counterproductive. I agree the DM in Toth's anecdote seems to have been too blunt and unwilling to improvise or entertain how the player's ideas might be effective or fun. They might have designed an adventure based on combat or infiltration rather than social skills and just weren't good enough at DMing (DMing is by no means easy) to adapt on the fly. Finding a group where you gel with the DM and (just as important) the other players, is not easy (but it's very rewarding when it does happen!).

I too think that it is a great article. What resonates most with me is that degrowth won't come (mainly) through policy and choice (as a species we are poorly equipped to make choices that hurt us in the short term while benefitting us in the long term), but through inflation (of raw materials, energy and the interest rates on debt/credit) and a decrease in productivity. How we react to this impending degrowth, will be the key to our future welfare.

If you'll give me the name of the architect or leader of the cabal and a rough time period, I'm willing to do the rest of the work. Otherwise, it's hard for me to believe that something as complex and broad as 'capitalism' could have been designed by one person or a small group of people with a specific (and nefarious) intent. I'm not defending capitalism. I have my own opinion about what it is, which I gave in a previous post, but I do obviously need to read more on the subject. The way other people use the term, it's hard to know what it even means to them, which also makes it hard to know if any particular assertion about it is right or wrong. The frequent anthromorphisation of capitalism as something that wants and does stuff I find specially puzzling. I found Zorral's link helpful, and have added Wolf's book to my amazon basket. If you blame capitalism for all of humanity's economic woes during the last 300 years, it's seems a bit strange not to give it some credit for some of the economic advantages we've come to enjoy in this period. If you say any increase in poverty or unemployment is due to capitalism, but deny any decrease is due to capitalism, then this assertion is, at the very least, counterintuitive. Killing and hurting people is many things, but what it sure isn't is a novel idea. It's been tried on all different kinds of people throughout history many times. For some reason, it has consistently produced dead and hurt people and failed to produce a utopia of humanity.

What Capitalism is or isn't depends on how you decide to define it, but most of the things I mentioned predate capitalism by more than a thousand years. Our worse traits seem capable of finding a cosy nook in any economic or political system. I haven't read either of those books, but while I might appreciate the recommendation, they won't make your argument for you. If you're arguing capitalism was designed by someone then you need to explain who, when and how.

Having a working definition of capitalism that we could mostly agree on would be extremely useful, because to me it's simply a system where there's a currency (not gold and silver coins, which I would argue are simply a superior form of barter), a market where you can use said currency to purchase goods and services, and basic financial institutions like loans, promissory notes, banks, etc. It obviously wasn't designed by anyone but simply arose through a series of social and economic changes that were happening more or less at the same time in lots of different places. It's very obvious how this, even in its most basic form, leads to concentration of capital and inequality (if you have a lot of money to begin with, you can put it in the bank and get paid a rent, whereas if you have no money to begin with, you'll need to get a loan and pay an interest). This can indeed be addressed, at least in part, through social democracy (have people with a lot of money pay a lot of taxes and have people without it receive a public income, provide basic services to everyone for free, etc.). Lots of things that people see as failings of capitalism (the ability of powerful and wealthy interest groups to not only pay little taxes but have their businesses subsidised and their interests protected by the state in detriment of their customers and workers) I'd argue might actually be failings of democracy. The opposite of capitalism is a different economic system, like one where you're indentured to the land and pay a tithe of your harvest to your feudal lord or a centralised economy where you work for the state and the state provides for all your needs rather than paying you a salary. It's not fairness and justice per se. In threads like these, though, the term capitalism tends to be used as a nebulous evil which tends to include anything from corrupt (or merely right-wing) politicians, extremely wealthy entrepreneurs, social injustice and inequality (whatever their specific cause), unfair laws, climate change and environmental degradation, etc.

As President, Sánchez can pardon a crime after a sentence has been passed (what's known as Indulto -Pardon-) or declare that certain people or actions are not subject to prosecution (what's known as Amnistia -Amnesty-). The first has already been used to pardon the Catalan nationalists who stayed in Spain and stood for trial. Junts wants an amnesty for all nationalists that were involved in the 1st of October Referendum (which would allow Puigdemont to return to Spain and not stand for trial). This would likely be a very hard pill to swallow for the socialists and have problems of constitutional legality. It's not completely beyond the pale, but I think it's unlikely. The other thing Junts want is a legal referendum, and that will be completely outside the question. I'm pretty certain Sánchez would prefer another election or even a right-wing government. Sánchez might be able to convince the Catalan nationalists to support his government in exchange for some of the other things they want (control over Catalan railways and improved regional financing), but if he does manage to pull it off I'll be seriously impressed. The Catalan nationalits have been bleeding votes due to internal division and basically failing to do much about achieving independence. That said, both Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz (the leader of Sumar) seem to think they can pull it off, so we shall have to wait and see.

I certainly am, but it's not all good news. Other than PSOE, which had marginal gains, the left performed poorly. While they managed to avoid a debacle, the current situation is a stalemate at best, and will likely lead to a new election in a few months' time. How that turns out is anyone's guess. That said, you're right that the forecasts were so dire this feels very much like a reprieve.

Nobody does, though I think Sánchez is being pretty cavalier about his chances. He's been able to take the wind out of the pro-independence parties' sails simply through being a decent President of Spain and kicking the ball forwards constantly. This has to come to an end, though. The Catalan nationalist party ERC has seen a steep decline in its votes which has to be a result of them trading valuable votes in the Spanish Congress for endless talks of little value. Junts are far more hardcore and will probably not play ball. If Sánchez manages to get them on board, it will be an incredible act of political sleight-of-hand. A Feijoo government also seems next to impossible, so more elections come early December seem the most likely option right now.

I have nothing against farmers. I eat food. In the current Spanish political scene they (or those representing the most prominent farmer's unions or collectives, obviously each individual farmer will have different views or opinions) seem pretty much at loggerheads with conservationists, though. Whether this is a good idea or not is an open debate, though. Spain is currently exporting its water (in the form of juicy oranges, tomatoes and other products) to other countries with far less severe water issues, and it's doing it at a heavily subsidised price, at that.

While farmer's landlore is undeniable, Spain (Europe, even) currently has agriculture and green policies at conflict right now. Green policies aim to preserve land and water from agriculture (which is often predatory with ecosystems), while farmers want to keep on making a living and criticize the government for not investing enough in renewing old (and often very inefficient) watering infrastructures and for not protecting their business margins from retailers who push the prices down as much as they can. In my home region of the Valencian Community, one of the first measures of the right - far right coalition that has just got into power has been to make a climate change denialist from VOX (the far right party) regional councilor for agriculture. In Andalusia, the right wing government has been trying to pass a law that will legalise fields in the proximity of Doñana National Park. Conservationists say this will further endanger the wetlands, that are already in a critical situation for lack of water.

I saw 'This world won't bring me down' (Questo mondo non mi rendera cattivo) on Netflix. It's a series about a 39 year old comic artist living in a poor neighbourhood in the outskirts of Rome. For a 6 episode cartoon series, I thought it had far more complexity and depth than it had any right to. Much recommended (and, if possible, I recommend the original Italian dubbing with subtitles).

It's been a devastating defeat for the left wing parties I support. Podemos, specially, has been obliterated from local and regional politics, losing more than half its representatives. PSOE's lost most of the cities and regions it controlled, and its traditional stronghold of Andalucia has almost completely deserted it. As a consequence of these dire results, the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, has summoned general elections to be held on the 23rd of July (they weren't supposed to be held until December). It's hard to fathom his reasons, but I suspect minimizing the representation of far left parties like Podemos or the nascent Sumar, that are his allies in the current government but political rivals when it comes to the left-wing vote, might be a part of it.

Madrid is an old European capital, and as such has tons of history and museums. Any guide will list them so you can go for whatever you're more interested in. The Museum of Royal Collections has opened very recently and it's definitely something I'll be going to on my next visit to Madrid. The Prado is obviously unmissable. At night, head away from the city center and main squares and go to one of the 'Barrios' (Chueca, Malasaña, La Latina...) to get some tapas. If you're travelling south from Madrid you won't be crossing any of the truly famous wine regions in Spain, but there are lots of vineyards in the La Mancha region (around Ciudad Real), and local wisdom is that a lot of their grapes go to make other wines of more renown. Maybe look for something around there? There are plenty of nice wine bars in the places you're visiting too. If you head south from Granada and then west towards Málaga there are lots of nice beaches there. Nerja is supposed to be nice, though I can't speak from experience (not really a beach person). You're not really in the best part of Spain for Roman ruins, but if you decide to explore around Ciudad Real you could maybe make your way west to the city of Mérida. This has, for my money, the best Roman ruins in the country (though I found the city is otherwise very unremarkable, and don't recommend spending any more time there). When we went to Granada, we went twice to a little wine bar called Ajoblanco, and we really loved it. It didn't have a kitchen, but you could order very nice wine by the glass and get some cold tapas, cheeses and Spanish ham. That was ten years ago, so it might have changed, though. Spain has a big tourist industry, and is thus very easy to travel around. Most people speak a bit of English and most places will take credit cards. Spain has pretty good roads, but driving in cities is not always easy, and neither is parking. If you're renting a car, make sure your accommodation has available parking. Finally, for the love of all that's good, DON'T order paella. Madrid and Granada are not paella territory. Any restaurant in those parts of Spain which has paella on the menu is suspect. As a rule of thumb I tend to avoid places with pictures of food, places that have a member of staff herding people in and places that have names of dishes in English on display in the street.

I've also been trying to learn how to cook over the last 5 years. Here are some things that have worked for me. - Find something that inspires you to cook, whether a YouTube channel you subscribe to (these are some I follow: 1, 2, 3, 4), a recipe book (Rukmini Iyer's "The Roasting Tin", which is all recipes which consist on putting stuff in a baking tin and popping it in the oven for half an hour is one of my favourites, and I think works great for starting out), or a writer in a newspaper (The Guardian is free to read online and has many writers which I like a lot and will put out a recipe once a week, like Rachel Roddy, Nigel Slater...). - A cook is only as good as their produce. Scour your neighbourhood for butchers, fishmongers and greengrocers that look good. Find specialist shops that will sell you the kind of ingredients you need to cook Asian food (or if impossible, you can get stuff from Amazon). Investigate little delis and farmers markets. Establish a rapport with the owners if you can, as anyone who sells ingredients knows about and is interested in food. - Cooking for a single person is often annoying, as many recipes are geared for 2 to 4 people. Leftovers are inevitable, so also learn how to preserve and re-heat food properly (often not as straight forward as popping it in the microwave for 2 minutes).

I'm having loads of fun, which is the purpose of any game. The setting is a tricky one with all the steampunk and techno-magic stuff, but I think we'll all get used to it if we're ready to give it some time.

I'd be interested. Plenty of experience playing pencil and paper D&D, but I've been missing out since COVID.