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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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@Tomcost
Can confirm the thing with language in Germany.
You get by with English and learning German is not very problematic here. Courses are cheap, material at your local library free.
Also it's not that terribly difficult for a good English-speaker, the languages are relativly close. If you had only spanish it would be harder.
 
Tomcost said:
The difference is that China is a growing power despite of that.

... and we haven't done anything since the 1920s.
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Yeah but the president did just declare himself emperor by rewriting the constitution and implemented a social credit system straight outta black mirror.

Don't get me wrong I love China but some of the Shit that goes on there is really fucked up.
 
Azel said:
Nailed it. But it achieves the goal of making the the unemployment statistics look nice, so nobody will ever fix it.

The simple fact is that the Information Age is rapidly making a lot of jobs with low entry barriers obsolete, so countries with a good social security system have begun to invent work wherever they can to keep statistics tidy.
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So basically it was a good idea but poorly implemented, and due to politics being bullshit, no one with the power to do so, want to fix the obvious problems with it, that's just typical.
 
Artemis1992 said:
@Tomcost
Can confirm the thing with language in Germany.
You get by with English and learning German is not very problematic here. Courses are cheap, material at your local library free.
Also it's not that terribly difficult for a good English-speaker, the languages are relativly close. If you had only spanish it would be harder.
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Well, that's another bonus for Germany then. From all the place it is the one that sounds the most promising.

Trickster314 said:
Yeah but the president did just declare himself emperor by rewriting the constitution and implemented a social credit system straight outta black mirror.

Don't get me wrong I love China but some of the Shit that goes on there is really fucked up.
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Did I ever tell here about the secretary of public works found throwing bags with money over a church's wall while wielding our equivalent to an M4 carbine?

China's shit is fucked up on a whole different way though.
 
Azel said:
I kinda have the feeling that they learned from the G20 riots in Hamburg. That even was very international in attendance and the one thing that was really ruining the protesters reputation was the amount of destruction and looting against private property and small businesses.
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Maybe, yeah. But those riots were very underreported in France: I'd be amazed if they'd heard of them.
No, it's more likely to be a class thing. This was fundamentally a protest against the arrogance of "the rich", personnified as Macron's own arrogance.

Azel said:
That sounds a lot like a bait-and-switch maneuver that will effectively lower the minimum wage or make it far more attractive to employ people at minimum wage instead of above it.
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Not quite.
What this will do is give +100€ a month to the minimum wage, but he implied that he would also lower what bosses must pay to social security every month (so their taxes per employee, basically) by 100€ too. End result is each worker gets richer, bosses don't care, but the state gets much, much poorer - and then creates some new tax to fund this in a few months. Except that Macron can't tax the rich, so he'll have to be sneaky about it. Maybe he'll raise VAT on cigarettes or something?
[shrugs]
This isn't great, honestly. It's better than nothing, but it isn't great.
 
Tomcost said:
Did I ever tell here about the secretary of public works found throwing bags with money over a church's wall while wielding our equivalent to an M4 carbine?

China's shit is fucked up on a whole different way though.
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That is an amazing visual, I am looking that up when I get home.

The problem with China is that ppl are willing to accept the really fucked up Shit because in a strange way the system kinda works. Social mobility is possible, if you work hard enough, one day it could be you, or your children or grandchilden who in doing the screwing.
 
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Duesal said:
Now that is a rough schedule. You moved from California, right? Talk about a harsh transition.

As for hanging out I'd be down. :) I'm gonna be done with finals by the end of next week, so maybe if you're free around then?
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I usually hang with friends on Sunday and could ask to fit you into the mix if you're up? Sometimes we play D&D even.
 
Tomcost said:
Well, that's another bonus for Germany then. From all the place it is the one that sounds the most promising.
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Yeah Germany is an awesome place to live from what I hear, although you should also look into Sweden, probably the nicest Scandinavian country to immigrate to, they are the most welcoming, and it's the cheapest Scandinavian country to live in.

Although in terms of alcohol it sucks, they have extreme taxes on alcohol, so the Swedish comes to Denmark to get drunk, and buy more alcohol to take home, we Danish do the same in Germany, as our alcohol taxes are significantly higher than the Germans.

The Germans mainly visit us for our beaches, so bathing tourists is how we get our beer money back, of course they also have a tendency to dig holes in said beaches(at least according to stereotypes) according to one of my favorite comics, it's because they just stole a beware of moose sign in Sweden, and want to bury their treasure.

Germany on Vacation - Scandinavia and the World

And here you see how alcohol sales work in the Nordic countries. The Circle of Beer - Scandinavia and the World
 
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Azel said:
Now I'm officially jealous. It's been... more then 5 years or so since I played at an actual table.
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My tip: I hook people into roleplaying by having them play rounds of Everyone is John (with a list of a few dozen premade skills and motivations to choose from I keep on my phone) as a drinking game.
Success has been decent so far.
 
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Interlude CCCXXXVII: That Teachers Might Learn
  • Threadmarks
    • That Teachers Might Learn ​

    Tenth Day of the Seventh Month 293 AC

    No matter how often or how low others bowed to him, Waymar Royce always felt a niggling sense of uncertainty over having men and women twice, thrice, or even four times his age defer to his supposed wisdom. When they actually called him that it was all he could do not to look around for some more deserving holder of the title. Knowledgeable he certainly was of the mixing of philters and potions, clever perhaps in finding new ways of doing things, but wise he would never think to name himself. The young knight knew himself to be headlong and rash in battle and out of it. He could hardly forget how he had met Hermetia, after all, with how much Tyene loved to tease him over it.

    So it was that when teaching alchemy he was careful to instill as much humility as he could into his students, and with Lady Teana's help a measure of skepticism besides. It was far too easy for Waymar's taste for a mage to peddle 'absolute truths' to those who did not know any better. Of that same hateful cloth were cut septons who proclaimed the evils of magic and drove him from his home.

    Alchemy Courses: 8/20 (Monthly progress)

    "Forgot something on the fire?" Sarah asked him in jest.

    "Er... sorry," Waymar stuttered, though at least he did not blush. "I was thinking of how odd it was for me to be teaching folk older than my parents."

    "That's what you call odd, is it?" the Pentosi-born mage shook her head. "Not throwing thunderbolts or brewing magic by the gallon?"

    "I haven't done the latter yet, and as for the fighting... you get used to it when you realize the power you call on is just a tool, no stranger than a sword in the hand."

    "Oh aye, that's a perfectly common sword you have there, practically a piece of kettle iron it is," she motioned to Purity's flowing warm bronze as it rested strapped to his back. "Why do you always talk about magic like it's ordinary?"

    "Because I'd like to live in a world where magic is ordinary," Waymar answered at once, surprising even himself with how vehemently he spoke the words. "Because I'd like to be able to visit Runestone without having to worry about ignorant fools calling me a devil-caller and my parents wicked for accepting me back under their rooftree."

    "The folk who want to find some fault with you or with them are going to find some other reason to. They'll say you are a foreigner come to steal their lands, they'll say you are a heathen, serving bloody tree gods. It ain't magic or its use you're looking to change but man himself, and that can't be done."

    "How can you be so sure? When was the last time someone really tried?" Waymar countered, the questions quick upon his lips, for they were born of a deep and abiding conviction.

    Sarah looked at him for a long while as though seeing him for the first time, then she laughed. "We'd best be getting to lunch before going off on bloody adventures gets any more tempting."

    Over lunch, Waymar, Sarah, Teana, and the two winged brothers chatted freely about their comings and goings, their students and their plans, and through it all the young Valeman felt as confident as ever he was on the eve of battle.

    OOC: It feels odd to write interludes this short, but that hopefully it is still enjoyable to read.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • TalonofAnathrax said:
    Maybe, yeah. But those riots were very underreported in France: I'd be amazed if they'd heard of them.
    No, it's more likely to be a class thing. This was fundamentally a protest against the arrogance of "the rich", personnified as Macron's own arrogance.
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    I actually think quite a few people who protested there with you have actually been there in Hamburg. We got left-leaning groups from all over Europe coming on that day, so I would be quite surprised if there hasn't been quite some overlap with your protests.
    TalonofAnathrax said:
    Not quite.
    What this will do is give +100€ a month to the minimum wage, but he implied that he would also lower what bosses must pay to social security every month (so their taxes per employee, basically) by 100€ too. End result is each worker gets richer, bosses don't care, but the state gets much, much poorer - and then creates some new tax to fund this in a few months. Except that Macron can't tax the rich, so he'll have to be sneaky about it. Maybe he'll raise VAT on cigarettes or something?
    [shrugs]
    This isn't great, honestly. It's better than nothing, but it isn't great.
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    The main question here is how that social security discount is implemented. See my example from over here.

    Worst case, Macron will fuck this up utterly and not only have to raise taxes to counter-finance his bold move of neo-liberal ass-covering, but also create a perverted incentive system were it becomes cheaper for a employer to hire two people at minimum wage then hiring one person at a sensible wage.
     
    Wow I came in to step away from working on my Orgo presentation (Furfuryl Alcohol why are you so hard to find info on :cry:) and find a whole lot of IRL things going down. @Tomcost and @TotallyNotEvil super sorry about what your respective Universities did to you guys. Also @Tomcost I can't really weight in on the immigration debate, but Duesal was quite correct about the weather in India, it really is quite bad. Also if you're looking in that direction I'd recommend not going anywhere near New Delhi the air pollution there is quite dangerous to breathe in nowadays.

    Edit: Also loved the characterization in the Update. It's a far cry from when Waymar first came to us afraid of his magic and heavily influenced into seeing it as evil/malicious.
     
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    Listening to the discussion about nations is interesting, but I'd recommend America if your looking for future prospects @Tomcost. There's a reason that despite our country doing everything in our power to make immigration as obnoxious and difficult as possible, people are still flooding in. We have a lot of the benefits of Europe (1st world nation, prosperous economy, sane levels of crime and corruption) while avoiding a bunch of the pitfalls (plenty of living space, cheap energy, a survivable upcoming demographic crunch). The primary issue is politics - all the 'problems' are inevitably tied into and exaggerated by our toxic and increasingly dysfunctional political system, and for all I complain about the government it's still way better than most other countries. Still, you better be able to deal with popular and empowered reactionaries, because they're just a fact of life, especially in the rural parts of the country.
     
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