Forced Segregation in Modern Times

What Is Segregation?

A legally or socially enforced separation of people into groups in daily life.

Segregation in Fiction

The story of The Hunger Games is about a dystopian society where the elite live with wealth and affluence, and all the other colonies live in isolation, constantly fighting for survival. The oppression of the people in the twelve districts is highlighted by the annual selection of two youths from each district, who compete in the Games to the death. The victor is given food for their district. The entirety of the Games is entertainment for the Capitol, where people watch and bet on the lives of the children that are being seen killing each other.

The question is how did this start? In the story, this is the 74^th Games that are being held; how did this barbaric practice continue for 74 years? It started with the punishment for the rebellions of the Districts when they lost the war, and they were forced to split up into the separate Districts. The divide was enforced, and travel between Districts was forbidden, and by keeping them all separate they were controlled. The Districts had no choice but to comply, and struggle daily to survive.

The majority of the people in the Capitol don’t really know where their products and goods have come from, and don’t know the living conditions the Districts are subjected to. They comply with government orders and believe all the news reports without even knowing how to investigate the truth for themselves. Censorship is key. We, as the reader of the book or viewer of the movie, know what is going on because we see both sides, so it is easier for us to discern the lies and half-truths. In the end, we are rooting for the rebels, wanting them to win against the oppression, unfair treatment, and general evil that has become the Capitol.

Segregation Throughout History

The story of the Hunger Games is a fictional story but has its roots in real Earth history (a “what if” scenario of England winning the war against the 13 Colonies of America), and many parallels can be drawn from real world events. Learning and understanding both the fictional narrative and our own history should be used to determine the best course of action today.

Racial Segregation in the United States

The racial separation of blacks and whites in America started with the abolishing of slavery, where three new Amendments granted newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. Despite these amendments and the civil rights acts to enforce them, the American Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions between 1873 and 1883 that virtually nullified the work of Congress, and blacks were regarded by many as second-class citizens at best.

By now everyone should have seen photos, watched video, read reports, and listened to stories of the many years of segregation of blacks in the United States. The Underground Railroad was used to help Blacks flee to Canada where they were offered freedom from racial persecution. Brave people like Rosa Parks stood up against this tyranny, and eventually necessary changes were made to allow black people to live (arguably) peaceful lives with their white neighbors.

Indigenous Segregation in Canada (and generally the Americas)

The early European settlers called it the “Indian Problem”. They wanted to push the indigenous peoples out to make room for the white settlers. This eventually led to the development of the reserve system, residential schools, Indian hospitals, and other programs designed to separate the native Indian from, well, everyone else. This paved the way for the complete eradication of social, economic, cultural, and political systems of Indigenous Peoples, while also allowing Europeans to expand their settlements across the country.

In the last couple of years, more light has been shed on the tragedy that the residential schools were, and the thousands of deaths of children that were a result of it. Sadly, there are likely thousands more to still be uncovered, and this is only one program that was established – what will we find when start to investigate the others? What horrible acts might have been committed in the Indian hospitals that we are unaware of?

Segregation of People Globally in WW1 and WW2

The separation of people during the two Great Wars did not just happen in Germany and its owned territories; it occurred globally. In Europe during WW2, German work and death camps were created, and Jewish people were forced into them simply for being Jewish. You may think that this was a military strategy only, but most of the citizens of Germany were compliant with the government rules. They relied on their citizens to report on their neighbors if they saw suspicious behaviour, like trying to save a Jewish person, or giving food or safe passage to a Jew. And the root of the problem is that the people of these countries were compliant, even when many of them knew it was wrong, but they felt they had no choice. If you want more evidence on this, watch the videos (links below) on The Wave, an actual event that took place in California in 1967, where school kids were turned into a fascist thinking group within just a matter of days. It was an experiment designed to answer the question "how could the Germans claim not to know about the killing of the Jews and how could they have let the Nazis come to power?"

But this issue of segregation was not just limited to Germany. For one example close to home, Canada and the United States separated Japanese people from regular society and placed them into internment camps. Why? Because there was a fear that Japanese people who lived here would find sympathy for their culture and families back in Japan and end up attacking from within. Was there a possibility that these fears could have been true? Yes, it is possible, but the problem is that the vast majority of Japanese people living in North America at the time had no desire for war, as they had jobs, businesses, property, and community built here that they did not want to lose. They valued everything they had built and did not want to lose that. As a result of their internment, however, most Japanese-Americans lost their livelihoods and homes, because when the war was over and they were released from the internment camps, the jobs were gone, the homes had been sold or appropriated to others, and the businesses had long since disappeared, in many cases still charging the Japanese people interest on bank loans that they had not been able to earn money for or pay since the beginning of the war.

What Does This Mean for Us Now?

There are, unfortunately, many more examples of this throughout history. Something very important to note is how each of these issues started – in most cases, it was not a sudden axe that fell. It was a slow transition, where the general populace was asked to comply with one small decision at a time. Look through the examples above and you will see this model fit each scenario.

·        Step One – tell you what to fear, usually based on either partial truths to make it sound factual.

·        Step Two – tell you who is to blame for that fear.

·        Step Three – get you to comply with the government mandated “solution” to make you safe.

·        Step Four – get you to snitch on neighbours and point out those who are not complying.

·        Step Five – single out and separate those who do not comply.

·        Step Six – the Government can now do whatever they want to those who have been separated out. Why? Because the rest of society thinks they are evil, they are to blame for everything that has happened, so whatever they get they deserve anyway. They deserve these consequences. Plus, it becomes out-of-sight, out-of-mind, because you can’t see what’s happening to those people anymore. Thank goodness, society can get back to “new” normal for those that have complied.

Sound familiar? What step do you think we are on now with our current pandemic situation? Somewhere between four and five.

If you don’t believe me, lets take just one example from above and see if it fits. The Indigenous Peoples of North America followed a similar pattern.

1. Indian people are unclean barbarians, uncivilized, and will attack or kidnap your children!
2. Be afraid of the disease they bring, and the strange, weird, and dangerous spiritual beliefs. They are the ones to blame for the lawlessness and danger in our new settlements.
3. “The Indian Problem” requires us to force them away from our settlements, for your safety.
4. They are not our friends – they need to be educated in the “right” ways of our higher society! We’ll put the adults into Reserves, and we’ll steal the children away to put into schools so that we can teach them properly and get them away from barbaric practices.
5. Anyone harbouring natives will be punished! You are not allowed on their land, lest you become corrupted by their evil ways! All natives are now secluded on their own Reserves – this is for your safety!
6. Most people don’t interact with or know many natives. Countless punishments and deaths occur across the continent as native Indians are forced into the “right” way of societal thinking. Most European citizens and settlers don’t even know what is happening to the native Indians, or worse, they know but turn a blind eye to it.

You can see the pattern here.

Germany indoctrinated people into believing they were doing what is right. Jews and anyone who supported them lost their jobs, businesses, homes, friends, families, property, and lives.

White people in America were taught that Blacks were a threat, of a different, lesser species of human.

Canadians were told that Japanese people were to be feared and so had to be placed in internment camps for everyone’s safety.

Pol Pot turned Cambodia into a communist country and, using the Marxist-Leninist thinking to hold power, resulted in the death of an estimated 2 million people through genocide.

Stalin used the same Marxist-Leninist thinking to enact mass repression, ethnic cleansing, wide-scale deportation, command hundreds of thousands of executions, and craft famines, all of which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 50 million of his own people to establish his rule.

And the tactics for each of these is largely the same.

Right now, on a global scale, this has become “The Unvaccinated Problem”, and people are being asked to turn in their neighbors if they haven’t been vaccinated, are being told to comply with the vaccine mandates and passport systems, and it is all “for their own safety”. Whenever the authorities are being questioned, the response is to continue to vilify the people who will not comply.

There are hundreds of doctors, nurses, researchers, and politicians around the world who have spoken out against either the threat of mandates, the vaccine, or the virus itself, and if you look at their stories you will again find a similar pattern. Previous to 2020, these people don’t have a single stain on their record. They have been in their profession for many years, sometimes decades. They raise their voice with questions and concerns, and suddenly they have pages and pages of material brought against them to discredit their claims, their research, and to conduct character attacks against them. Again, look above at the historical examples – does this look familiar?

What step are you willing to let the current issues climb to before you take notice?

1.      Step One – Fear covid! We are in a pandemic.

2.      Step Two – Fear your neighbour. They might have covid.

3.      Step Three – Take this vaccine. Fear anyone who doesn’t.

4.      Step Four – Snitch on neighbours and point out those who are not complying.

5.      Step Five – Segregate those who do not comply. They present a danger and there must be consequences. Unvaccinated lose their jobs and businesses, homes, property, friends and family.

6.      Step Six – The Government has full power over the movement of the population. They can effectively mandate any treatment they want of the unvaccinated who are in quarantine, for the greater good.

 

Seriously, You Are Going to Go There?

I know, I know, people will think I am being paranoid. People will want to call me names or start to discredit any of the sources I will share, or something. But I just want to conclude by asking you this: what if I am right?

What if there is an agenda, a narrative going on and you are one of the ones being compliant, going along with the wave of government enforcement? Watch the video of "The Wave" below, and then try to tell me there are no similarities here.

What if the internment camps start showing up again, and “The Unvaccinated Problem” is proposed to be solved by taking anyone who is unvaccinated and forcing them to move and live in those camps? (See the Australia links below for confirmation of this already happening.)

If you don’t think that is possible, look at the following posts in the links below, and then look at the steps outlined above. Think about where the line must be drawn to stop history from repeating itself…again.

Related Article and Video Links

Australia Forced Quarantine Situations

South Australians are being forced to get this app on their phone to prove they are at home, and self-quarantined. From the Australian news and government: “The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person.” Does that sound like a free country? Or does that sound like it is starting to look familiar from the steps above?

https://www.rebelnews.com/south_australia_residents_now_forced_to_download_quarantine_app_that_randomly_requires_picture_proving_they_are_at_home

In the already created Australian quarantine camps, life is not very happy.

https://rumble.com/vm6902-covid-quarantine-camps-in-australia-with-incredibly-draconian-rules.html?mref=4pvd7&mrefc=2

 

Video Links for “The Wave”

If you don’t believe how easy it is to have groups of people be manipulated, or are just curious to watch for more information, I recommend the following short movie that is based from the true story of how “The Wave” came to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8

As a follow up, this short documentary from January 2021 is a written short story from the teacher, Ron Jones, and his thoughts on how it all happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwfDrG6UwqE

Finally, some additional resources about The Wave – consider these both the TLDR version of the above two videos, as each of these is only a few minutes long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM7zC6aS4pQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKJPKIwy9cU

 

Police and Emergency Services Warnings

A retired forensic investigator speaking of the dangers, and what the global unity of police is now trying to do to educate others and stop the unethical laws that are going into effect.

https://fb.watch/860BvuptO9/

 

Is Science Showing That Natural Immunity is Better?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/15/natural-immunity-vaccine-mandate/?fbclid=IwAR1-k2iIzRoE7TAdtquyRI2Zpuf1PRr_yMv_Uh4iVeix1a8Pf-zOlWsGpE4

 

What Are the Real Risks?

This doctor once fully supported the vaccine, and even administered it to many patients. Several months later after reviewing the research and the ongoing case studies, he could no longer support it, and had to stop promoting them.

https://rumble.com/vhp8e1-massive-world-renowned-doctor-blows-lid-off-of-covid-vaccine.html

 

Democracy - Suggestions For Better Politics and Politicians

Churchill is quoted as saying, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." How right he was! I believe the main cause is because democratic politics, the way they are currently designed, will inevitably lead to a two-party polarization that happens with the parties, which results in many trickle down problems. 

I have some thoughts on this, and potential 'fixes'. Please read and comment with your suggestions to improve it further.

Terms of Service

In many conversations I have had and articles I have read, I have often found a phrase that intrigues me. It goes something like this "The best person to have in government is the person who doesn't want to be there". In most professions, I would say this is a mistake, after all wouldn't you want someone who is passionate about what they are doing to be fixing your car, building your house, or performing your surgery? I know a lot of people who are fantastic at their jobs, but do they want to be there? Not really. They are passionate about doing their job right, and excel at it, but they would be the first to tell you that the work they do isn't where they would prefer to be.

Politics should be the same way. There are too many "career politicians". A politician should be there to serve the people they are working for. Instead, we have a picture of the people of the county, province, or country holding the politicians up on their self-made pedestal.

Government leadership roles at all levels (Mayor, Members of Parliament, City Council, Prime Minister, etc.) should be allowed to serve a maximum of 2 terms, and then must step back or move to a different role, and cannot go back to the same role for at least 2 terms. In addition to the pay changes described below in the Updated Pay Structure section, this would prevent some of the "career politicians" from exploiting the current structure.

I don't think it is right to have someone serve their 2 terms and never be able to return. That experience merits they continue to serve if they want to, but there also needs to be time to step away and remember what its like to be a "normal" citizen.

Allow for a Non-Confidence Vote

Public Voting

I have heard many times people say things like

• "There is no one good enough to vote for, so I am not voting for anyone!"
• "I am tired of having to pick the 'best' of all the evils, so I am not voting this time!"
• "I read the candidates/parties, and they all suck! I am not voting"

But what does this tell the politicians? What does it say to anyone doing analysis and reporting on the vote after the fact? Not much. It tells them that a certain percentage of people did not vote - and that is pretty much where the story ends. The same can be said if you just spoil the ballot so no vote is cast; it doesn't really send the message someone might hope that it does.

Imagine, though, if on every ballot, at every level of government, there was a "Non-Confidence" box that you can mark. Imagine a vote that is counted, and the "Non-Confidence" entry wins. What message does that send to the people who are running for those positions? It sends the message that the citizens who voted do not trust any of the candidates, and they all need to go back to the drawing board to re-write their platforms. And that would require that the candidate and parties get out and speak to the people in their constituencies to find out the details, why was the vote Non-Confident? What are the issues that are pressing that need to be addressed? When the next vote is held, you can be sure the parties will have done their homework, and revised their platforms.

Party Voting

This should also apply to members of parliament who are casting votes for bills. In the current system, if even a single member of the party in power votes against a bill that was proposed, this is considered non-confidence in the party in power and a new vote is held, and everyone is basically out of a job. This is not a good environment for political discussion and freedom! 

Party members should be allowed to vote against a bill if they have strong reason to disagree with it, without fear of losing their job and upending the current government. This would send a message back to the party leaders that maybe the bill needs to be revised before it is brought forward again. 

If maybe ~20% or more of the party votes against it, then the non-confidence should go through. But this should possibly be a vote for new leadership in the party, and give that party a chance to clean things up a bit internally. If a second non-confidence vote happens again with the same bill that is over 20% of the party, then it would be obvious the party is having internal problems, and a new full vote should be implemented by the citizens to elect a new party to the leadership position.

Cabinet Make Up

This is supposed to be a democracy. But what happens when the Prime Minister gets into office? They appoint whoever they want to the roles that are available. This does NOT represent democracy! Here is a suggestion: what if the leader of the party is required to appoint cabinet members that represent the way the voting went? 

For example. lets say there are five parties that are in the federal election, A, B, C, D, and E. Party A wins, and the breakdown is like this (I know that in the real world it is based on seats and other factors from the provincial level, etc., but I am just using some percentages here for easy example):

1. Party A - 40%
2. Party B - 30%
3. Party C - 15 %
4. Party D - 10%
5. Party E - 5%

Using those numbers, the cabinet should be made of (assuming 36 members):

1. 14 from Party A
2. 11 from Party B
3. 5 from Party C
4. 4 from Party D
5. 2 from Party E

Again, I know this is an over-simplified example, but I hope the point comes across: this more accurately would represent what the people of the country actually voted for. What does this accomplish? Certainly in the beginning, arguments and frustration. =-)

Of course it would! Because we are so used to whatever the current leader says, everyone in opposition just tears it apart, even if that leader was actually correct. But what would a cabinet (or council, or oversight committee, etc.) do when they are forced to work together in a model like this? They would be forced to communicate, refine their ideas, and work harder to come to decisions that appeal to all involved. Yes, there would be concessions made, but it would stop some of the polarization of the voting system the way it currently is, because the new leader would be required by law to ensure that members of other parties were included based on the actual vote.

Updated Pay Structure

I borrowed this from another post I saw, and wanted to include it here. I think that the pay structure certainly needs to be fixed as well. This would be a good start.

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Member of Parliament collects a salary while in office and receives a 3 month pay when they are out of office, in order to allow them time to return to other work.

2. Members of Parliament participate in the Canadian Pension Plan. All funds in the Parliamentary retirement fund move to the CPP system. All future funds flow into the CPP system, and Parliament participates with the Canadian people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Members of Parliament can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Canadians do.

4. Members of Parliament are no longer able to vote themselves a pay raise. Parliamentary pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3% per term. Serving in government is supposed to be an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term's, then go home and back to work.

5. Members of Parliament must equally abide by all laws they impose on the Canadian people. There are too many cases of MPs or government staff not having to be accountable for their abuse of governmental process or power, when in fact they should be held to a higher standard overall.

Conclusion

I am not an political expert, but I am sick and tired of our current political mess, and think that things need to be overhauled in order to make them better. And I think there are a lot of people in our country that would, at the very least, agree with that sentiment. 

Is God Timeless? How Does He Hear Our Thoughts?

Another question from my Facebook post, asking questions about who and how God is.

Question:

I believe 100%. I saw an angel when I was young and my brother had one come out in front of him when he was driving at night stopping him from having an accident. My Babcia has Jesus come to her in a dream when she was in one of the camps during the war and he told her not to worry that she’d be on the ship that was coming and she was – on the same ship as her dream. I also heard the angels sing when Pope John Paul II died. It was the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

What I’ll never understand is how God has just always been. Also how he hears our prayers when we say them in our head.

Answer:

I love this question, it’s great! It can get scientists and theologians equally tied up in knots trying to explain it.

The root of it is asking what was there before Creation? At the point of Creation, when nothing existed yet and then that moment later when things DID exist, what was around at that moment before? Physicists have come up with all manner of things to try and explain it, and most of them don’t actually answer the question but instead just push the question further back.

·        Some say that before the Big Bang was a singularity that existed within nothingness that became unstable and then exploded, creating our universe – but where did the singularity come from?

·        Other theories suggest that the universe is eternal, that there was no beginning of time and it just always has been – but again the question still has to be asked, then who or what created the universe? Time being eternal does not explain away the question, it just tries to define a Creator out of existence.

·        Another theory states that Earth was seeded by aliens, or possibly that spores from another planet landed on earth and began life here. Again, this doesn’t answer the question of Creation, it just pushes it away to another world, but you still have to answer the question of how life got to that other planet in the first place?

Eventually it comes to that question of: what was there when nothing existed? Or another way to state it is: before our universe existed, what was there?

The answer to that is God. God exists outside of matter, space, energy, and time. I covered this in an earlier post you can find here. The important take away here is that we have to realize that God exists outside of our ability to perceive, or another dimension if you will.

If you want a really good analogy for this, read Flat Land¹. I’ll try to sum it up quickly here – imagine a world when everyone is two dimensional shapes; circles, squares, triangles, and the like. Everything lives in only two dimensions. If you were to go down to the realm of only one dimension, everything there would be perceived as points, or dots on a line if you were from the second dimensional land. See, it wouldn’t matter if you were a circle, a square, or rhomboid of any kind, the people of Point Land (one dimensional space) cannot see you in any other way – they would just see dots on a line.

Moving back up to second dimensional space, you can see everything in the shapes they contain. But now imagine that a three dimensional being comes in – what would you see? Again, you would have no way of imagining what they really look like. All you can see is two dimensional shapes! So, if I, as an observer looking down in Flat Land, were to reach three fingers in to help you, what would you see? You would see three separate beings – three circles, or if you were looking at it from the side as a single dimension, three lines. I am only one person, but people in smaller dimensional perceptions would see many of me in different forms.

This is the same analogy for God, and it also helps to explain the Trinity a little, too. Human beings are three dimensional beings, and we’re stuck in that perception. God exists outside of matter, energy, space, and time! What would that equate to? A fourth dimensional being? Fifth? There are some theologian physicists who think God is more like a tenth dimensional being. Regardless, it doesn’t matter if it is fourth, tenth, or ninety-ninth, we cannot perceive it. We can only imagine it.

So how does He hear our prayers that we only think in our minds? Well, that’s a little like trying to explain to a person from Flat Land what a space ship is – there is just no frame of reference we can use to describe it accurately. How do you tell a flat square what any three dimensional object is, and tell them how it flies into three dimensional space, with combustible fuel, and can land on the moon? For that matter, how would you describe the moon to someone in Flat Land? It isn’t really possible – there is an entire vocabulary that doesn’t exist for people in Flat Land when trying to describe anything in our three dimensional space. God exists in a completely different dimension. Maybe He can see and read our thoughts? Maybe He doesn’t have to – maybe He is pure energy and looks at some kind of cosmic vibration that our thought patterns make, and it translates to Him perfectly what we are thinking?

And how has God always been? Well, remember that He exists outside of Time; He has to in order to have been responsible for creating it. (I will add here that there are competing theories about the beginning of Time and the Universe itself, so I am summarizing only the one that I feel makes the most sense both scientifically and theologically.)² If He exists outside of Time, then the same concept as above applies. How does a being from a higher dimension try to explain what they perceive outside of our perception? It isn’t really possible – again, we can only imagine it. From our perspective we have a limited view of time in a single direction. For example, we cannot go backward in time, or stop time; we are trapped in the steady progress of time going forward. God, however, is not constrained by time – He conceivably exists at every point in time from beginning to end equally, and before Time began.

It is a mind bender, no doubt! Once you start trying to think of that existence in higher terms, though, at least it can begin to ease the mind that while we cannot fully comprehend, we can be confident that God knows what’s going on.

References

1 - Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland

2 - The Origin and Meaning of Time by the Ravi Zacharias institute, https://www.rzim.org/read/just-thinking-magazine/the-origin-and-meaning-of-time

The Terrible Acts in The Book of Judges

Here is another question from Facebook, where I asked anyone to reply with questions about God and the Bible.

Question:

The treatment of women in the Old Testament. Read Judges 19, where a man casually gives a woman over to be raped and killed.

“Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”

It gets worse from there. A lot worse. And this isn’t even the story of Lot.

Answer:

The quick answer here is you are absolutely right. The treatment of his concubine is horrible. There are many terrible things that happen in the book of Judges, and it is here that we need to look at the context of what this book is all about.

“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did as they saw fit.”

This is a common phrase throughout Judges. Quick summary of this book: the Israelites, after Joshua died, had no leader and forgot about the miracles that God had performed to help them escape from Egypt and get to the promised land. Without a leader, the people fell into idolatry, sin, and at times anarchy. They did whatever they wanted, and whatever they thought was right. God would then need to raise up a Judge to discipline the Israelites and eventually lead them back to God – which then the people would forget God and their promise again, and the cycle would repeat.

It is not a good part of the story. The depravity that occurs in the book is awful, no question there. So why is it included in the Bible? And does this really point towards the Bible showing that women can be treated so badly and have people get away with it?

I have heard some Jewish scholars in debate talk about how the Old Testament paints some pretty ugly pictures of their people, and that appears to be some proof for the validity of the Bible. What person in their right mind would try to write a story that has so many negative aspects to it, and then use it as justification to get people to believe in the god that it represents? The Jews do not hide the fact that things like this happened. Instead, they remember it so that it can be used as a lesson of how not to act and behave.

Let’s look at this passage that has been referenced, Judges 19. It would be a mistake to say that this is representative of the entire message of the Bible. The Levite here gives up his concubine to be raped and she dies as a result of the experience; he is in the wrong, plain and simple. However, remember the line that is a theme of this book? For chapter 19, the first line is, “Now in those days, Israel had no king.” It isn’t an excuse for his sinful behaviour, it is simply a commentary and reminder: Israel had no king, they had forgotten God and His commandments, and did whatever they wanted thinking it was right and okay to do so. This Levite doesn’t seem to care at all that his concubine is dead and seems completely unphased at her death. When he gets back to his own home, he cuts her body up and sends pieces to the other tribes, inciting anger from them all.

Basically, what is happening here is that the Levite did wrong, but then blames the tribe of Benjamin for what happened instead of taking any responsibility for his actions, and then he encourages the rest of Israel to punish Benjamin for what they have done. They raise an army! Instead of him asking forgiveness or owning up to his mistakes, he sends the armies of Israel to attack one of their own tribes. It really is absurd – “How dare you rape and murder the concubine I carelessly threw out into the street? Now I’ll show you!”

So, the men who raped and murdered that woman, do they get away with it? No. In fact, the war here is quite bloody and brutal, and the tribe of Benjamin is almost wiped out completely – and this just starts another section of the book of Judges where more terrible things happen.

The primary message of the book of Judges is that God will not allow sin to go unpunished, but He is also compassionate and shows mercy along with His judgement. Israel was God’s chosen people – God was their King, but they had forsaken their covenant established at Mount Sinai. God disciplines them for following other gods, disobeying laws, blatant immorality, and committing acts of evil. Yet they were still His chosen people, so God sends Judges when the Israelites cry out for mercy. These Judges were godly people who were leaders to try and deliver the nation. Eventually, this cycle leads to the people getting a central monarch, a king chosen by God as His intermediary, in the hopes that this would help the people to remember God and stop sinning (which doesn’t entirely work – but that’s a different book).

There are some lessons to be learned from Judges: that we must remember to keep God as the pointer of our moral compass; that when we fail to remember God, to ask forgiveness and seek if possible to fix it; and that we need to be wary of hedonism and anarchy, doing things our own way instead of thinking of others needs and God’s will. Bottom line, Judges can be looked at as what not to do.

To address the treatment of women in the Bible, this single passage from Judges is not indicative of all women in the Bible. When Jesus arrives on the scene, He instructs people to care for and respect women. This is definitely outside of the norm! Remember that in the times of Christ, women did not have the same rights as men in any respect. Women were little more than property. So why is it that Jesus treats them with such respect, dignity, and love? In John 4, Jesus is speaking with a Samaritan woman, and does so kindly and openly. When his disciples see this, they begin asking each other why he is doing this, but they don’t interrupt. Jesus shows them that women, and the Samaritan people too, deserve respect so they can be saved.

In those times, a woman’s word held no weight in a court of law, so why would God have women be the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection? If this was a hoax concocted by his disciples, they would never have picked women to be the first to spread the story! They would have hired well-respected men in positions of authority to tell others about Jesus coming back to life. Instead, the angels appear first to Mary and other women, and tell them to let others know. Mary runs and gets Peter and John, who return with her to the empty tomb. The men are saddened by what they see and leave to go home – Mary stays and weeps, and then Jesus arrives and asks her why she is crying. After Jesus speaks her name, she recognizes him and realizes he is alive. She is the first person to see Jesus alive after His resurrection! That is an incredible honour, and it was given to women.

Throughout the Bible, there are many instances of strong women: Sarah, Ruth, the daughters of Zelophehad, Priscilla, Hannah, Ester, and many others. Women play a crucial part in the story the Bible and deserve to be honoured and respected.

How Do You Believe In God, Miracles, And The Bible And Justify It Intellectually?

This is my first foray into answering some questions based on Christian Apologetic. I posted a question out on Facebook page and had a number of people respond with questions and comments. Here in my Blog I will be answering each of those questions as I finish some research and get the time to create a post for them.

I invite those who have additional questions to please ask them of me - I am not a scholar, I do not have degree in Theology, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night. 😎 But I am a believer in Jesus as my Saviour, and I didn't come to that conclusion easily. I still have a lot of questions, and I continue to seek answers in my faith. So while I may not immediately have the answer about God, I am willing to do the research needed to find answers for us both.

Here is a screenshot from the Facebook post, talking with Michael A Ventrella, to set the scene so to speak, about the first question from that post.

 

Question: 

OK, the biggest mystery to me is this: How do religious people who believe in science and evidence and don't fall for believing in supernatural things or astrology justify their belief in organized religion with all its trappings?

In other words, I can understand people who say they believe in god but not in angels and devils and all the magic in the Bible, but how can you believe in those kinds of things and justify it intellectually?

Answer:

This is a good question. Most often it goes hand-in-hand with questions like:

·        “Isn’t God just the same as believing in fairies, dragons, and leprechauns?”

·        “Is faith in religion delusional?”

·        “You are a scientist! How can you possibly believe in God if you have work in (insert area of study here)?” Those areas of study can be biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astrophysics, archaeology, and many more.

Let’s start with a basic premise that if God is real, then this is a God who made the universe, and a being with that immense amount of power does have the power to perform miracles, walk on water, raise people from the dead and other supernatural phenomena, and angels and other spiritual beings then must be real too.

I would also like to add in an observation that people (including myself here) need to look information with an open mind, instead of with a pre-conceived end in mind. This is true for everyone, atheist, creationist, and agnostic alike. Blaise Pascal is reportedly quoted as saying “People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.” If what we are seeking is evidence for or against there being a God, we need to pursue the goal of evidence first without skewing it either way in advance.

In a forensic crime scene, investigators need to look at the evidence and follow the trail – they cannot decide who the criminal is and then make the evidence fit their case. Crime scene investigators take all the evidence they can find and come to the most reasonable conclusion. This is why court cases need to be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt”. They are not looking for 100% - there is always room for doubt, but they need to prove a case so that the most reasonable conclusion is what a jury and judge find a verdict on. ¹

Similarly, we need to look at the evidence for God and find out if it is accurate or not. Can we make the case that the best explanation for certain things is God, or some other cause?

Something that usually surprises a lot of people is that famous historical scientists Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Boyle, Newton, Faraday and Clerk-Maxwell were all firm and convinced believers in God.² Many scientists look at the complexity of the universe, the mathematical improbability of life arising from nothing, and rationalize that there had to be some form of Intelligence in order for there to be an Intelligent Design. The complexity in life and its origin cannot be explained simply by natural causes – greater and greater forms of complex life do not arise with gradual change. The fossil record shows explosions of life very suddenly not slowly over great periods of time, and it and all current life forms show reproduction after their own kind rather than morphing into other species.

It has been stated by mathematicians that the probability of the universe existing in the exact way it is now is an astronomically huge number, so infinitesimal a chance that they can just call it impossible. There are others who argue that with probability maths, the existence of anything can be explained simply in a formula that accounts for incredibly small chances. Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, there is still a question that both have to answer: what started it all? What was the moment before? If we assume that the Big Bang is an accurate depiction of the beginning of the universe, then what about the moment before the bang? There had to be something or someone to kick off the chain reaction to start it all.

Some try to get around this and state that if there are an infinite number of universes, most of which don’t support life as we know it but a few that do, we would eventually get around to having our universe just the way it is. They claim this is a naturalist explanation for origins, but this still doesn’t answer the question; ok, fine, there are infinite number of universes, but there still needs to be that moment before the machine started cranking out infinite universes…what caused it to start?

Even when atheistic scientists point to natural explanations for the origin of the universe, they still need to explain it with something supernatural in the end. For example, some scientists have admitted that the development of life on Earth from random chemicals and such coming together at the early stages of the planet’s creation is not possible, so they submit that the seeds of life came from extra-terrestrial origin and had to have been dropped here at some point (Panspermia Theory).³ The challenge with this theory, assuming it was correct, is that it still doesn’t explain origin of life, it just pushes the explanation back one more step – ok, if bacteria from a comet fell to Earth, or intelligent aliens purposefully dropped seeds of life here, where did that bacteria or the aliens come from? There still has to be something that created them before they could be placed on Earth.

In this universe, we are limited to looking from the inside out, but whatever created the universe has to have the capability of looking from the outside in. There is no natural explanation for this yet – the most reasonable explanation is some type of Intelligent power. We’re not saying the God of the Bible yet, we’re just seeing that the evidence points more and more to a Divine Intelligence, instead of random chance.

Stephen Hawking lectured on “The Beginning of Time”⁴. The summary of it is that there was a beginning to the universe (the Big Bang) and it was the start of energy, matter, space, and time. (Side note that there are other papers that have possible theories to go against this, but they have not been proven out, and have a number of their own flaws to contend with).  The inclusion of time as having a beginning is important. How do we get a beginning, a starting point to the universe, from within the universe itself? As we mentioned above, something that exists within the universe could not have created the universe – whatever function, being, intelligence, machine, will, or process that started creation had to exist previous to the universe so that it could create it. The Bible describes God as existing outside of time, and because time has a beginning only a being that existed before time started and also exists outside of matter, energy, and space would be able to create it in the first place. This leaves God as the most reasonable explanation.

There are many unexplained phenomena that happen today. Many can be chalked up to luck, skill, coincidence, or sometimes aliens or government conspiracy. Even with all of those explanations, there are some that have no explanation at all. Are these miracles, or angels intervening on someone’s behalf? I admit that there are a lot of logical explanations that are possible, and I will still seek them out before blindly believing in something supernatural from God – but I don’t discount the possibility of God acting in some way. After all, if He really did create the universe, is it really so hard to believe that He could also heal someone, or send an angel to help you in some way?

Footnotes:

1 – A good person to listen to is J. Warner Wallace, a forensic detective. A couple of good YouTube videos that will go into more detail of studying a crime scene and using the same skills to investigate Biblical accuracy are:  https://youtu.be/DCHJbO-3-jA     https://youtu.be/ayJOAOQJh7E

2 – Excerpt taken from the book Can Science Explain Everything? by John C Lennox, a joint venture with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, Zacharias Institute, and The Good Book Company.

3 – Panspermia Theory from multiple sources and discussions, however a good summary can be found on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

4 – Lecture given by Professor S.W.Hawking, which can be found at http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html

The Stories of Monty Potter and Harry Python

I had a fun musing this weekend. It hit me on Saturday morning, unbidden, out of the blue.

What if you combined the comedic wit of  Monty Python, with the fantastic story of Harry Potter?

I immediately saw opportunity in this! Imagine two school mates at Hogwarts - Monty Potter and Harry Python - going to class, coming up with the most silly of stories, and getting into the most Riddikulus of situations.

I mean, consider it: it would stand to reason that the Ministry of Magic would be bound to have a section there somewhere for the Ministry of Silly Walks, wouldn't they?

How fantastic would it be to see:

Harry Python and the Holy Grail

The Life of Brian Potter (Harry's cousin)

Harry Python and the Contractual Obligation

Harry Python's Flying Circus

Magic could certainly produce some wonderful effects for the flying circus!

And with a little extrapolation, some more incredible skits would become brilliantly available, like Harry Python and the Castle of Spamalot.

And who would ever forget The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Harry Python and the Holy Grail? (Including a rare Hogwarts Choir version of "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life".)

Definitely very silly. What do you think?

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Crafting And Magic Item Creation Rules

Magic Item Creation

Updated May 19, 2024

Image: Nerdarchy.com

I spent the greater part of a weekend searching the D&D Next books and online resources trying to find some good rules that made sense regarding Magic Item Creation, Buying/Selling, and general Crafting. I found none. I then spent another few hours searching for real-world examples of crafting times, costs, and miscellaneous notes to try and get a better understanding of what the process of crafting armour and weapons, among other items, would be and the cost associated would be.

The end result is that this is, in my opinion, one area that the 5th Edition rules fall short on.

In every case I found that the time and money involved in crafting items was far less. I also feel that the rules as outlined in the books don't allow for an element of chance for something to go right or wrong during the crafting process, and they also don't account for the possibility of a character's greater practice and skill to shine through. Obviously, a master craftsman should be able to create something faster, and/or with higher quality, than a novice.

The rules written here are designed to allow for a structure to follow, and should fit most case scenarios in a D&D campaign. The most important rule to remember is that these are guidelines only – there are certainly situations that may arise that require discussion as they may not logically fit what is presented here.

Information here has been taken from the DMG (page 128 – “Crafting a Magic Item”; page 129-130 “Selling Magic Items”, and the Magic chapter in general) and the PHB (“Downtime Activities - Crafting” page 187), as well as several hours research online into blogs on other players considerations on crafting, and modern day armour, weapon, jewellery, and general goods crafting.

Note that the guideline costs below apply to permanent items – all consumable items cost ½ the amount of a permanent item of the same rarity. In all cases, the DM is the final word on what happens in their campaign - feel free to use all or part of these rules for your game.

These rules will be tweaked as time goes on in our home game. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments below!

A Note about Skill Checks

There are several locations in this text when skill checks are called for, and the DC listed. In most cases, the actual Ability Score or Skill used for this check is not mentioned – this is intentional. Sometimes the requisite check will be obvious, and other times it will require a discussion with the DM and Player to determine what skill or ability should be used.

For example, a character crafting a necklace might assume that Dexterity is the ability check to make to craft the item; however a Monk may argue that she spends 6 hours in secluded meditation, focusing on the intricate design of the gold and gem inlays, seeing the entire finished product in her mind’s eye before beginning construction. The DM may allow the character to use their Wisdom instead, to show their discipline to their craft in a different way.

Another example is how different tasks for the same product may require a number of rolls to accomplish a single craft. Continuing the example of the Monk crafting a necklace, the rolls required may be determined by what task is being accomplished; she might use Strength or Constitution to smelt the gold material, Dexterity to craft the fine wrought gold into a necklace, and Charisma to sell it after it is complete.

Basics of Magic Item Crafting

There is a list of requirements a character must have in order to craft a magic item:

• Formula: a plan, blueprint, or recipe, that describes the construction of the item
• Be a spellcaster with spell slots
• Must be able to cast any spells that the item can produce
• Material component cost
• Gold cost
• Time cost

In addition, every item crafted also has a minimum level requirement, as shown in the Crafting Magic Items table (DMG and listed below in the Gold Cost section for reference). All of the above requirements must be met in order for a magic item to be crafted. We will discuss how this is accomplished in more detail in each section below.

A Note about Scrolls and Potions

In our home games, we noted that the cost and time to make relatively minor magic items, like spell scrolls and potions, were high enough that it became prohibitive for players to bother pursuing it. After additional review of many other posts and commentary online, review of optional rules, and our own discussion around the table, we agreed that halving the cost for scrolls and potions seemed to be fair. If a player is crafting their own Spell Scroll or Potion, all of the costs listed below should be halved: this includes materials, gold, and time.

For a little further clarification, the player who is crafting such an item already knows the spell they need to cast to create the item, and they are already familiar with its casting and usage (presumably that's why they have it in their spell book or list of known spells). This familiarity should allow them to craft these items more quickly than others.

Formula

A formula is required to craft any magic item, regardless of its material construction, arcane or divine source, permanence, or type. Formula can come in all shapes and sizes, similar to a wizards spell book, so one might be found on a piece of parchment, a stone tablet, or carved into a plank of wood, depending on who it was who scribed the formula in the first place. 

Note that some items to be crafted have a formula inherently built in, like writing out a Spell Scroll, so a separate Formula may not be necessary. For example, a Wizard who is scribing a Spell Scroll already has the spell written down in their spell book, and has memorized the spell for casting it (as you need to effectively cast the spell in order to 'apply' it to the scroll you are scribing it into), so in this case a separate formula is not necessary. If the player feels that other circumstances also eliminate the need for a separate and specific formula, the DM can rule that it is not required for that specific case. 

Formulas are not consumed in the process of crafting the magic item.

If a character does not have a formula available, there are still options on crafting a magic item: Experimentation or Disenchanting/Reverse Engineering.

Experimentation

A character may decide to go ahead with the process of crafting a magic item without a formula. This immediately doubles the time and gold cost for the item, and runs the risk of failure. After the costs have been completed, roll on the following table:

Item Rarity	Check DC
Common	DC 15
Uncommon	DC 20
Rare	DC 25
Very Rare	DC 30
Legendary	DC 35

A failed attempt (lower than the required DC) to discover a formula expends all of the material components, gold, time, and any other costs, and produces no result.

A successful attempt (equal to or higher than the required DC) produces a Formula on how to craft the item in question, but not the item itself.

On a critical success (equal to or higher than 10 + the required DC) produces a Formula on how to craft the item in question, and a Prototype.

Image: thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com

Prototypes

In most cases, a Prototype is a regular working item as intended, with one additional difference that other items of its type do not have. Often these differences are cosmetic only, but sometimes they can be Flaws or Advantages. If a prototype is created, roll on the following chart to determine if the item has additional characteristics or not. Use the following modifiers based on the rarity of the item created (the more epic the item, the more likely it is to have a distinctive characteristic):

• Common 0
• Uncommon +2
• Rare +3
• Very Rare +5
• Legendary +8

d20 Roll	Result
1 to 11	No Characteristics
12 to 13	Flaw
14 to 19	Cosmetic change
20+	Advantage

The DM may allow additional bonuses or penalties to this roll depending on the circumstances. The exact nature of the Flaw or Advantage is up to the Player and DM to discuss and agree upon, and may be comical, dark, sinister, useful, or just an amusement. Some examples include:

• A Wand of the War Mage +1 that can also convert coins into caltrops
• A +1 Weapon that has the Returning quality, so that it always returns to the owners hand after being thrown
• A suit of +1 armour that also has the ability to change colour with a command word (may be any colour, or limited to a selection of three)
• A broom of flying that also has a 15% chance whenever it is being used to leave a trail of fresh growing flowers as it passes over land
• A Singing Sword may accidentally have 2 personalities, one in the blade and one in the hilt, with opposing alignments, and they fight and bicker all the time

Ultimately, this list is up to your imagination only! For additional suggestions, I would recommend going over to http://donjon.bin.sh/ to view the fantastic random generators available there.

Disenchanting / Reverse Engineering

A character can Disenchant an item in order to learn the Formula of how to craft the item. This process destroys the item completely, in exchange for the knowledge of how to make more.

Not anyone can disenchant an item – the following prerequisites must be met first:

• Must have Arcana as a trained skill (or Religion if the item is Divine in nature; other skills may be substituted if the DM and Player agree)
• Must be proficient in the tools related to the item (for example, Smith’s tools for a sword)
• Must have the related tools available
• Must spend 4 hours of time working on the deconstruction of the item, per level of rarity – this time commitment must be completed within a 3 day period of time
• Common – 4 hours
• Uncommon – 8 hours
• Rare – 12 hours
• Very Rare – 16 hours
• Legendary – 20 hours

Two or more characters can work on this process together in order to satisfy all of the skill requirements, however all characters involved must complete the full time commitment required, or the item is destroyed and automatically fails to produce a Formula.

Success of this attempt is based on the Rarity of the item. This is based on the Arcana, Religion, or other skill check determined to be relevant to the item. It is possible that particularly complicated items may require more than one roll, at the DMs discretion.

Item Rarity	Check DC
Common	DC 5
Uncommon	DC 10
Rare	DC 15
Very Rare	DC 20
Legendary	DC 30

Spellcasting Ability

Crafting a magic item requires the character to be a spellcaster with spell slots, and have the ability to cast any spells that the item can produce.

Either of these requirements can be met by one character (a Cleric with the Cure Wounds spell for a Healing Potion, for example), or it can be met by items or other characters to satisfy the requirements (a Wizard with spell slots working together with a Thief that has the Use Magic Device ability using a Wand of Cure Wounds, for example).

Material Component Cost

The Material Components for a crafted item are generally fairly obvious – a sword requires the metals to make the sword, and possibly leather to fashion the hilt from. Spell requirements are listed in the description of the spell.

There may be issues where the crafting becomes more complicated, such as if the crafter decides to make the sword out of silver instead of iron or steel,  use silk obtained from a Djinn to craft the handle, and an diamond edged tool to etch runes into the blade before it cools on its final shaping. These requirements may be cosmetic only, may add functionality, or be a requirement of the spells being cast upon, among other things. For this reason, specific costs for material components can vary greatly, and so base costs are not listed here. A good rule of thumb for weapons, armour, and basic items that are already in the PHB, just use the listed cost for a mundane item of the same type.

As long as all material costs are covered, the item can be crafted.

Gold Cost

The thought is sure to come to everyone’s mind, “Why is there a Gold cost when I have already purchased all the material components required for the crafting of the item?”

The Gold cost listed in the rules stand for things required other than the material components. It represents daily living costs of room and board, and materials used other than the obvious already obtained, such as wood or coal for the forge, replacement of broken tools during the crafting process, needle and thread, buckets of water, and many other possibilities.

It could be argued that if the character owns their own estate or has other means of covering these costs, that some of these costs should be reduced. This requires discussion with the DM on a case-by-case basis to approve.

Base costs are listed in the DMG, and are copied here for ease of use.

Crafting Magic Items
Item Rarity	Creation Cost	Minimum Level
Common	100 gp	3rd
Uncommon	500 gp	3rd
Rare	5,000 gp	6th
Very Rare	50,000 gp	11th
Legendary	500,000 gp	17th

Time Cost

All things take time, and crafting is no exception. The time cost must be spent in order to craft the item in question. Characters may wish to rush their work, based on time constraints, or may have such exceptional skill that the work itself doesn’t take as long as it may for a common labourer.

By the book, a character makes progress on an item at a rate of 25 gp per day, based on the Crafting Cost table listed in the Gold Cost section above.

If a character wishes to speed the process up, their skill check suffers a penalty based on the rarity of the item, and how much faster they are wishing to speed the process up. A character cannot speed the process up by greater than 50% of the full estimated time, unless the skill checks themselves dictate otherwise (see Making the Skill Check section below).

Rarity	DC modifier penalty
Common	No change
Uncommon	-1
Rare	-2
Very Rare	-3
Legendary	-5

Time Reduction	DC modifier penalty
10%	-1
20%	-2
30%	-4
40%	-6
50%	-8

Work Shops

Access to a workshop can modify a craft roll by altering the time, cost, or end value of the item crafted. Depending on the item being created a workshop may be required (a forge to craft arms and armour) or not at all (clothing and small objects). It may also be a requirement of the nature of the item itself to have a workshop, possibly of a specific type, location, or racial influence.

If no workshop is being used, the time, cost, and other factors may be increased at the DM's discretion, or may not be possible at all.

• Lower quality workshops may provide penalties to die rolls, if applicable
• High quality workshops may provide bonuses to die rolls, if applicable
• Very Rare and Legendary items must be crafted in a high quality workshop
• High quality workshops never provide a bonus to a die roll for Legendary items

 A workshop can aid in the efforts to craft an item, based on the chart below.

Workshop Quality	Example	DC Modifier
Poor	Small village, or location with no access to major trade route	-2 to 0
Average	Common town, some trade access	-1 to +1
Good	Town with a strong trade presence	0 to +2
Exceptional	Strong trade presence, mage or academic guild, major town or city	+1 to +3
Unique	Castle, Palace, or other Major Library, Guild, or similar organization	+2 to +4

Making the Skill Check

Image: thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com

The Skill Check for item creation can be handled in two ways: one check at the end of the allotted time, or a check made daily or weekly during the crafting process.

If the check is made once, it provides a quick and simple way to determine the outcome of the crafting; success or failure. This allows the check to be completed quickly so that the game can resume for the party.

If the check is made routinely throughout the crafting process, it can enhance the experience for the character, and more accurately depicts what the crafting procedure would be like. This also makes it possible to have the chance of saving an almost failed build - for example, if 4 rolls were being made during the creation and the 3rd roll failed by a small amount (~less than 4 from the DC) the DM may allow the player to recover the the project by adding 15% to the cost and time and making the roll again. If this roll succeeds, the project continues; if it fails, the creation fails and the player would need to start over.

The choice of which to make is largely up to the Player and DM to agree on. It is suggested that for Common and Uncommon items one check be made for the entire process. For Rare and higher items, use graduated rolls; Rare 2 rolls, Very Rare 4 rolls, and Legendary 6 rolls.

To make the roll, consult the Results table below.

Results Table

	DC Check
DC	Result
0 to 10	The attempt failed; the day’s efforts are wasted. Time and cost are still expended and the project does not progress.
11 to 18	Normal success
19 to 23	Good quality; the days efforts produced a 50% increase in productivity
24 to 29	Excellent quality; the days efforts produced a 75% increase in productivity
30 +	Masterwork quality; the days efforts produced double the expected productivity

Final Thoughts

As always, remember that everything listed here, and even the rules in the books themselves, are guidelines intended to help the party have an enjoyable experience! Adjust what needs to be adjusted so that it makes sense in your campaign. 

Lastly, make sure that you have clarity between DM and players about what you are doing. It is despairingly frustrating as a player to think you have everything understood, cast your dice, only to have the DM say something along the lines of "that isn't how that works", and your dice were for naught. When both player and DM have clarity and agreement on what rules are set, it is much easier for everyone to accept what the dice decide. Enjoy!