The best part of Amok Time is that it provides canonical proof that Leonard McCoy is ready and equipped to potentially fake his own death at any moment
The most dangerous phrase in the language is, “we’ve always done it this way.”
“Come on, let’s mix it up!” The heart surgeon says.
“B-but we’ve always done it this way!” The other replies, “this is how you replace a heart valve.”
“That’s the most dangerous phrase in the human language!” The first surgeon replies haughtily as he inputs a fruit loop into the patient’s heart. “This will be his valve. He will be a fruit loop in a world of Cheerios.”
(taken from this post on the experiments of Harry Harlow)
This is serious business, because this is a large part of how sexism, racism, homophobia, rape culture, ethnocentrism, etc. continue to happen.
The reason we do heart surgeries the way we do is not “because that’s what we’ve always done.” It’s because that’s how year of scientific research says will give the best results. One of the best uses of the scientific method is to test common practice, and either eliminate it or give it legitimacy. Don’t do things because “that’s what we’ve always done,” do them because that is what evidence and research say we should do.
Saying “we’ve always done it this way” justifying maintaining a harmful societal norm is dangerous. We can do better.
Ok but let’s talk game mechanics with Caleb’s flashback/shutdown/whatever that was. Matt had him make a Wisdom save after his HDYWTDT. He failed and then blanked out.
Assuming this is related to Caleb’s backstory/trauma/etc, it would actually be really interesting if Matt and Liam had worked out an in-game method for incorporating flashbacks or triggers and whether or not they were debilitating to Caleb in the moment.
(Unless this is common practice and I’ve just never seen it before?)
now that we’ve seen it a couple times i’m pretty sure i’ve sussed out the actual mechanic
i think matt has liam roll when caleb kills a humanoid enemy with fire
i think all of those criteria need to be met before it happens. just killing somebody isn’t enough to do it. just burning somebody (non-fatally) doesn’t do it. and it has to have come from him – watching things burn from other sources seems to make him uncomfortable, but he’s never had to roll for it. and i’m not 100% on the last one but I think the enemy being humanoid is relevant. he seemed to have a problem with the gnolls, for instance, but not with the hyenas.
still not sure what the DC is for the roll, or how matt decides it, if it’s one standard “this is the wisdom DC for not having a flashback,” or if he adjusts it depending on circumstance
anyway it’s super interesting and i love how they’ve been finding mechanical ways to work character elements into the fabric of the game.
backup blog in case tumblr explodes 