What you’re describing sounds like a difference in mate value. It’s a combination of any desirable traits like looks, fertility, resources, or anything else. We might spot an apparent difference in two mate values, but the US doesn’t have many rules or norms around mismatched pairs. Other cultures might though, with rules around bride price and such.

Most animals are pretty good about assessing their own mate value from physical and social signaling and tend settle into matched pairs more often than not. There are some cool social experiments that repeatedly prove this out, but I don’t have any links handy.

And pants!

Oh hell yeah! NPCs trick my players all the time. Commanders, strangers, witnesses, priests, anybody might have an ulterior motive or secret agenda.

Best advice I have is just trust. Player characters don’t need to trust every non-player character but the human players at the table absolutely have to know they can trust you the human GM.

When my NPCs pull some shady stuff, like the reveal last session that leader of the crusade has been plotting to betray the PC crusaders for the entire campaign, that reveal always comes with a huge smile from me. “Yeah y’all, this dude is terrible! But now your characters are on to him and I can’t wait to see how they take him down!”

I’m not pulling one over on my players, I’m inviting them to a party I’ve been planning for ages and now we all get to find out what happens next.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

Whenever efficiency increases consumption increases. Better steam engines mean more coal consumption. Faster cheaper RAM means more RAM consumption.

I appreciate the example and I think I see your point. I agree with the underlying logic, in general, but applying it to the N in NPD seems an over extension.

Dictionary definitions for the two terms, as records of common usage, are notably different. Autism refers solely to the condition so your example sentence would be an inappropriate use. Acceptable and understandable in the language, but an uncommon application of the word. On the other hand, narcissism is used for general egoism and self importance first and for NPD second.

This of course doesn’t invalidate your feelings when hearing the word or desire to protect others from the same, but maybe this can offer some comfort if the most common usage is not intended or even understood as a slur or even a reference to folks with NPD.

Serious question: isn’t the word separate from the disorder though?

We can describe people doing antisocial, paranoid, or dependent things even when they don’t have the associated personality disorders. We can also describe someone generally as antisocial or paranoid if they display those traits regularly, regardless of any underlying diagnosis. Is it different with NPD?

Wait… the US military is team MechaHitler now?

No need to nitpick. We are two humans communicating so obviously this is a social activity. A community theater is social media by the loosest definition, but the term “social media” now commonly means the big centralized commercial product platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

There are worlds of difference between the manipulative ads and algorithms of social media and the activity feeds on Lemmy. It’s the difference between a shopping mall and a community yard sale.

Right on! We won the game. 🍻

Then I’m the third half and I have a friend that makes the 4th half. I feel like okcupid’s early days was peak dating tech before the enshittification set in.

Trying to avoid the already great recs, for varying levels of cyberpunk themes or aesthetics…

Movies

Gattaca 1997

Elysium 2013

Ex Machina 2015

TV

Almost Human

Cowboy Bebop (any)

Devs

Incorporated (highly recommend!)

Max Headroom

Cyberpunk Edgerunners

#goals

Left of most American left. Co-ops, labor unions, UBI, wealth tax, and universal healthcare, but also reparations, general strikes, land back, etc.

THIS

Some I haven’t seen mentioned:

Come Drink With Me 1966

Barbarella 1968

The average roleplaying game rulebook is like a vehicle repair manual except all the part names come from a mixed up swirl of foreign mythologies or experimental science concepts. Not every kid has the patience, the mental agility, or the lack of more interesting social distractions necessary to internalize those rules and run a game for their friends.

300pg Tome: drops on the table with a loud thud

Old Gamer: There’s a game in there kid. Greatest game you’ll ever play. If you have the will to find it…

My guess is you’re being downvoted because you claim AI is the coolest invention since the internet, but ironically you present that claim to a corner of the internet instead of inside the safety of a prompt window. Some may find this ironic because instead of asking the “almost resembling consciousness” to generate an almost resembling answer, you opted to consult a primary source instead. Some folks might see this as the behavior of someone so close to figuring it out…

Free market capitalist doesn’t want the consumers of his employment opportunities to be able to shop around

The promise of Jenkins and all the much more modern CI/CD tools when the job is ultimately just maintaining an aging Jenkins server.

https://libro.fm/ is DRM free. Each purchase gives a link to the raw mp3 file and a share of each sale goes to a local bookstore of your choice. They also offer a subscription comparable to audible of you like that style.