Episode 161 - Chivalry is Dead

[Mike]

Mike shares the awesomeness of his experience with VR goggles and the coolest campaign button from the 60’s. Then he talks about the his latest podcast finds, including Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase and Dead Pilot’s Society. On the Pod-O-Matic, R2 rolls out new listener-submitted questions about Monopoly, aliens vs religion, chivalry, and the best place for a Nerd Pride Radio meet-up. All of this plus Listener Betrayal. This will be the best hour you’ve spent with your ears all week. Don’t let your ears down. Listen now.

Enjoy!

[Elle]

Yes, we should do that thing in the cabin again. It was awesome and would be so much better now that the board is more organized around games of different kinds. Now that several of us have met in person (or via Roll20) in different combinations and clusters, it might be easier to commit to doing this. I promise not to discuss politics. I am primarily food-oriented and compliant in person. There are other cabins in other parks, if that one isn't optimal for other travelers. But it is no worse than Indianapolis, right?

I am totally on board with your entire chivalry segment. First answer: it's not dead. Then I listened to your kid talking about people (who presumably are dating and involved in some kind of... something) fighting over NOT paying the check, and you said okay, changing answer, it's dead. Maybe it's dead! Crap. What is going on? I'm not suggesting that anyone else should share my attitudes about this - au contraire. However, I like chivalrous behavior and do not find it sexist. Of course the man pays, and of course you sometimes offer, and pay if he agrees to accept your offer, and you provide other contributions (NO, not those) that ensure it all balances out nicely. I used to wash and vacuum the man's fancy car, for instance. On the other hand, I drove the car around town like a maniac, so it was still a net in my column. I don't care. Someday you'll be asked to rub lotion on his heels. Of course the man pays.

Agree with SB that it's all about good story. I think your kid is right that some games with poor mechanics are killed by it - but these are only games that rely heavily on the mechanic in the first place. Poor mechanics in an RPG are annoying but don't wreck it because the theme (as Nelly put it) is more important. Pathfinder's mass of stats added up to infinity are kind of annoying to me (not to mention a lot of weird little rules about how things are supposed to work), but they're fine as the support structure for the larger purpose of having an RPG.

Also agree with SB's feeling of too much anxiety about Tuesday to sleep. Because here I am in the middle of the night listening to this podcast as my form of mental solace because I cannot possibly sleep. At some point it has to happen - I should at least try for 5 hours or I'm in bad shape tomorrow. I'm completely freaked out in a different way by almost any possible outcome. I've also reflected very little about the whole "first female president" thing because it wasn't a big part of my decision, and Hillary would not have been my first pick if I could have engineered the universe, but now that we're so close to it happening? Oh My God. I'm having some pretty major emotions about conversations I remember with both my grandmothers, neither of whom were born into a world where they could vote. I take voting to be my sacred duty because of those conversations. It was a pretty big deal to them and so would this be.