One of the wiki's example specialties for Leadership is Praxis. As a raging anarcho-socialist, this may be something I take, but I'm not sure how exactly it would apply. Any suggestions?
You're sent to a warzone to retrieve an anomalous/supernatural artifact. You're given minimal information--you don't know what the artifact is, why your superiors want it, or even who your superiors are. As you play the game, you see and do terrible things in order to find and retrieve the artifact, all while uncovering hints that your superiors may not even be human. Finally, you manage to retrieve the artifact, only to learn that your superiors already possess several more like it--they just want to expand their collection. All this time, you have been a pawn to inscrutable forces beyond anything you could comprehend, working towards goals you will never understand.
I actually really like this idea because, unlike the original, it's a commentary on the actual causes of war rather than trying to place responsibility on the soldier, who is ultimately disposable to the politicians who decide these things without ever having to step foot on the front line.
For Context: So I live next to what appear to be some very conservative neighbors (they have a confederate flag in their garage). They've kept to themselves and haven't posed any kind of threat to me (in fact, they built a fence for my house for free), but I've lived here a long time, and when I was a kid, they told their children not to play with me because of my autism. Also, when I was very young, I was locked out of my house on accident, and they wouldn't let me in to use the phone to call my parents (luckily my other neighbor was nicer). Given the state of the world rn, I'm in the mood for songs that validate my worries of being suddenly turned on by them. Currently listening to Man Next Door by Massive Attack, and am looking for similarly ominous music about being afraid of your neighbors.
As the title says. I'm debating whether or not to put points in telepathic blast so I have an offensive option, or to rely on my connections and/or authority (i have extra occupation: leader/military) to get a weapon. Would authority or military connections be an acceptable excuse to start with, say, a laser rifle? Or is there some other way that starting equipment is determined? Thanks in advance.
From Primal's marvel wiki page:
>Hyper-instincts: He is able to find solutions to any of civilization's problems that he faces given the right motivation. Place him near a fridge he will eat what will keep him alive and most likely stay in top physical form. Place him in a court room and he will develop the intellect and eloquence to win a trial.
I'm interested in building a character who is mentally adaptable to a superhuman degree, able to instantly and automatically analyze and understand any environment or situation and how to use it to her advantage. However, there doesn't appear to be an equivalent power in the core rulebook. I don't technically have a game to play in yet, but I want to be prepared in case I do, so I'm starting at rank 1. Any suggestions?
So my understanding is that what makes special forces "special" is that they operate behind enemy lines, with much less supervision and support from higher command. If you're a Civil Affairs person attached to an SF unit, do you receive similar training and a similar level of independence? Or are you closer to traditional infantry? I'm not asking if CA is as "elite" or "badass" as SF--my understanding is that neither unit is focused on door-kicking. I'm asking if CA operatives attached to SF are expected to have the same mental flexibility, initiative, and critical thinking skills as SF, while conducting a CA mission (as opposed to Unconventional Warfare or Foreign Internal Defense). Thanks in advance!
Apologies if I'm unclear, I'm not quite sure how to articulate what I'm looking for, but I'll do my best.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-beginners
The above link is an article about a guy who invented his own language in his spare time, which granted him enough popularity that he was invited to a conference in Russia, only to find that the hosting organization had ties to terrorists, prompting him to gtfo. It gives you a crash course on the relevant linguistics while also giving you intimate insight into the language inventor's psychology and personality.
I'm not necessarily asking for a documentary that has to do with linguistics (though I'm not opposed to them either). I'm looking for scientifically transdisciplinary documentaries about unique or fascinating individuals or groups that don't quite fall into normal genre or topic conventions. I realize this is rather broad, and I apologize if I'm not being specific enough, but there's a particular vibe I'm looking for that I can't quite put my finger on. I'm already interested in watching Secret Mall Apartment and You Got To Move, which might tell you something. Let me know what you think fits!
I haven't seen any Ghost In The Shell media aside from the 1995 and 2017 movies. I would probably change my mind if I read the manga or watched any of the TV shows. And the 2017 movie isn't without flaws (very sad it didn't use the original version of Making of Cyborg, and that the Major didn't go the transhumanist route in the end). But it had way more characterization and emotional complexity than the original, which seemed to me to mostly consist of exposition. I got to see the inner lives of the characters to a much greater extent than the first movie, and that has earned the 2017 version my respect.
So when reading about army civil affairs, i came across this. Normally, Special Forces/Green Berets are considered separate from Civil Affairs (CA focuses on humanitarian stuff, Green Berets train and lead fighting forces behind enemy lines). But there seems to be an MOS that involves special forces somehow. The thing is, there isn't a lot of information on it that isn't obscured by army jargon. What does the 38S do, as distinct from other CA MOSs, and what is their relationship to special forces?
So this isn't my first post about Phantom Liberty, but thinking back on it, I think that I missed a potential interpretation.
Phantom Liberty is often described as a spy thriller. While the genre isn't often noted for its thematic complexity, I think that PL chose to focus on spies for a reason. That reason is that the reality of being a spy or intelligence agent kind of sucks. You're trained to exploit people, use them as tools rather than relate to them as equals, to manipulate and betray and constantly fear the same thing happening to you. I imagine that this must be difficult for many people to unlearn upon returning to civilian life. The stories of Songbird and Reed comment constantly on the isolation they experience, on their struggle to be human when the powers that be only see them as weapons.
But there's something else that's known for treating people like objects, for conditioning them in a way that destroys their ability to relate to others. That thing is capitalism, and what is Night City but capitalism at its most extreme?
In short, PL uses a brutally realistic depiction of life as an intelligence agent as a microcosm of the dehumanizing conditions of Night City as a whole.
I'm a civilian, so apologies if I sound ignorant. I've long been fascinated by the green berets and other special forces, not for their reputation as badass door-kickers, but rather for their actual mission, which to my understanding involves a lot of teaching and social problem-solving. However, as I understand it, there is a pretty important difference between Unconventional Warfare and Civil Affairs; UW is about training a fighting force, while CA is about hearts-and-minds/state-building operations. However, when reading the HowStuffWorks article on Green Berets, I came across this;
Large-scale psychological operations are created by the psychological operations command, the United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (USACAPOC). But actual missions on the ground are often carried out by the Green Berets.
I've also had non-civilians say that UW and CA often overlap to an extent in practice. Is this accurate? Or are UW and CA indeed distinct responsibilities/missions?