Dinh AaronMk

How do you decide level?

Well first I draw a line on the floor with non-iodized sea salt. Then I cap the ends of the line with the skulls of small rodents. From one side of this line I throw over-ripened tomatoes at the neighbors. Depending on how much I drank at the time I gauge the rating difficulty of an RP by how hard it is to hit the neighbor dog during any given sunny evening between the hours of 3pm and 5:48pm. I use the following rule:

Free - I'm doing this from the neighbor's garage and a food bowl is right there, or I got a clear site-line to the food bowl in the kitchen.
Casual - I'm parked in my backyard facing their property and I'm waiting to see the dog
Advanced - I'm parked in the front yard facing away from the neighbor's property while trying to hit the dog in their backyard
Nation - I was playing Crusader Kings 2 or Age of Empires at the given time of the ritual and the fermentation of the Roleplay

Most often it's the later.

18th Century Ice Age

So, the colonies are still technically in place in North America, but the American Revolution is about to happen, or was, based on the political climate back then. Any plans for that?

@Athinar

With all likelihood the immigration of all - or most of - Britain and its colonies would - as Vilage said - tip the geographical scales. As well, the influx of British and Canadian loyalists south may tip the balance of popular opinion away from Republican ideals; or at least in a sense, a sudden explosion of population wouldn't fare well on anyone but land speculators and there'd be a sense of crowding and discontent.

Forced to confront the situation, the German George III and parliament may end up conceding to open up Indian territory to the west to alleviate these pressures but that's for Vilage to say and do and not me.

The situation may turn less from independence and more towards something like Cromwell minus the permanent Lord Protector business. And given how heavily protestant and Puritan the colonies are, there'd be no love for the Irish for sure.

18th Century Ice Age

I know a lot would be in flux due to the fallout of the ice age, but presumably the British Isles would be underwater based on the scenario you posted so the King and his court and the British government would be somewhere in the Americas, right? I ask because I was thinking of doing a Virginia lawyer and fixer among the the first families of the colony/crown.

@Byrd Man

The return of large-scale glaciers and such would actually create more land around England. Full-scale glaciation or an ice-age in the supposed scale wouldn't flood anything. Basically: Doggerland would return. A lot of other coastal areas would dry up too as sea-water is sucked up into the slowly growing ice-pack. Realistically this may happen over a long time, but I think for the purpose of this we'll be overlooking it.

Ice can hold more water in volume than it can displace it, or something like that.

But the premise comes with some fun implications, like in Europe the great city-state of Venice would now be a city on a hill and not a city on an island in the middle of a lagoon. And it'd lose its naval ability and have to learn to be a terrestrial force like Piedmont.

Age of Iron - Reboot Edition

@Dannyrulx

OK.

what is spams patronus

A lobster

Rigging the Election: The Clinton Campaign and DNC incite violence at Trump Rallies

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Anderson Cooper better stay out of subways if she wins.

@Vilageidiotx

Imagine if Trump wins...

Rigging the Election: The Clinton Campaign and DNC incite violence at Trump Rallies

<Snipped quote by ArenaSnow>

so you are saying Hillary is going to get rid of welfare and replace it with a massive new-deal style work program?

@Vilageidiotx

Is he also implying she'll trade insider news for sex with young ambitious journalists?

Your Political Ideology: Redux

On the centralization of power: you also end up in a situation in society where with so much power invested in so small a group it can become easy to throw it all down on the ground. You end up with hilariously few supporting pillars of government and at any moment or staunch disagreement with policy one of those pillars can move to the side and send the whole system crashing down so that it may step up and assume the position of power out of alliance with the other few pillars and agree the last guy was a shit-head, or a general apathy or fear.

This feeds in a way into banana republics and presidential dictatorships where so much of the power is invested in the strong man with a parliament running a thinly veiled attempt to look democratic. The president has to carefully balance the interests of his few supports to keep in power so one or all don't over-throw him. This is how coups work, one - namely the military - gets fed up and lets new leadership take over in a military coup.

Failing that, you put morons in power in the offices below you and lead by looking like the smartest guy, and you just made so many careers in the right places they'll lick the bottom of your boots forever. The people meanwhile; disenfranchised, otherwise poor, without a voice, and presumably without a vote can't do anything to stop you.

Once you decentralize government or make more offices to help keep the then-ruling party in place the less likely it's all to come undone when someone gets mad at you. If one office throws a shit-fit so what, at the end of the day the nation continues to plod along as a mild annoyance fumes and sputters into the background until it gives up or is fired and replaced by someone more skillful and or thankful.

And in the environments that these highly centralized, dictatorial governments arise in are environments where the economy may not have much in the way of diversity. There's going to be that one major resource the powers that be hang over heads or use to get the capital to hold power while everyone else meeks out a substance living farming.

Based on my understanding of the German economy at the time of Hitler's rise there wasn't much left of an economy for the common people to use. Hitler came around promising to make things great, did that, but then the government held all the resources they acquired or reacquired for Germany among themselves thereby monopolizing power while the German people got none or little so they would keep in line and not revolt against the State. Or if they did the much better financed and supplied SS would go in and kill them all.

You could probably argue something similar with Stalin, or that his staying in power relied on the centralization of Russian heavy industry in the state and the entire centralization of the Soviet economy so that the government ruled it all, and not collectivist communes across the country capable of practicing their own socialist economy to better make their community something to seriously consider by the government. Trotsky couldn't survive when Stalin wrapped everything up under his great coat.

Precipice of War - We Write Under The Sign Of The Goat

tfw you might be having one of those distracted moments, but it may also be the beer.

Rigging the Election: The Clinton Campaign and DNC incite violence at Trump Rallies

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

it's cool as fuck to do

in 2008 i drove a buddy to the polls to vote who wrote in for sheriff in every election the name of a famous serial murderer.

he was also high af on pain killers when he voted that year and swore he forgot having ever voted, even though I drove his drooling ass up to the polling station to do so.

ahhh, if only this year was as simple as 2008

@Vilageidiotx

tfw the Bush and Bush-Obama transition period actually feels sane in retrospect.