Are your PCs still slaves to materialistic pleasures, or have they transcended earthly desires for a higher purpose?
Money is a higher purpose.
>>43710078
Vow of poverty, every time.
My purpose is to get money, then to spend it on MORE MONEY.
>>43710078
My PC is a devout servant of the machine God, the Emperor, wishing to be divorced of the weak flesh and made pure tech in order to better serve and expand the domains of his God King. So, sort of? Both are very materialistic faiths.
>>43710078
>have they transcended earthly desires for a higher purpose
well
they're pretty sure they've transcended, and their purpose is definitely to be higher
but that might be the weed talking
>>43710078
Yes, my wizard knows materialistic pleasures pale in the face of the highest purpose, pursuit of knowledge.
Is mayonnaise a higher purpose?
>>43710078
Earthly desire is pretty awesome, honestly.
It only sucks when you can't fulfill them.
>>43710078
Sheng Seleris here: Illumination is for squares, occlusion all day erryday
Which one would survival count as? My current character is being pursued by an angry tribe that wants the party for human sacrifice, and I'd rather like to keep my heart inside my torso.
>>43710078
Ironically, the woman pictured, in professing her love of the Buddha, has demonstrated that she has failed to understand his teachings.
Love, charity, compassion, friendship, self-sacrifice, passion, and other such noble emotions are also materialistic desires, and should be cast aside just as one should release their greed, wrath, lust, and grudges.
Loving someone ties you to them, and therefore the world. This is to be avoided. The ideal state of Buddhism is enlightened apathy and absolute detachment.
>>43710078
>implying a higher purpose isn't an earthly pleasure.
>>43710387
>>43710308
You seem like a cool guy. I like you.
>>43710078
Does alcohol count
>>43710387
you're a dumb nigger m8
Helping your fellow man is explicitly one of the core tenets of buddhism
whereof one cannot speak
thereof one must be silent
>>43710387
>Love, charity, compassion, friendship, self-sacrifice, passion, and other such noble emotions are also materialistic desires,
Passion, maybe. The others are fine. Compassion is especially important in Buddhism.
>>43710078
My dwarven wizard has collected a couple stds and some lice around the whorehouses if that's what you wanted to ask.
![Alice_Teasing[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/ZvZEmPT.png "Alice_Teasing[1].png")
>>43710669
>The train damages both the aesthetics and the structural integrity of the tunnel, meaning that no wise man would drive his own train into it after someone else passed through it
>>43710701
Tunnels aren't vaginas, just like trains aren't penises.
I can't help but feel like that's a trick picture op.
>>43710387
>Ironically, the woman pictured, in professing her love of the Buddha, has demonstrated that she has failed to understand his teachings.
It's funny because if you knew anything about the character you'd realize that you're right in your assessment but for the wrong reasonsShe was afraid of dying and basically became a demonic witch so she could become immortal, leading to her being sealed in another dimension
>>43710078
>Wet t-shirt Byakuren
Well, speaking of earthly desires. My PC doesn't care about money, but he does care about railing every woman he meets.
Does going forth and multiplying count as a "higher purpose"?
>>43710701
>>43710723
In the actual cartoon, the tunnel is a gay man's asshole.
>>43710771
Does shefall in love with a boy.?
Unable to confess, she is gifted by a deus ex machina with the phone number of the boy. Never minding the strange area code, she immediately calls him, and is overjoyed to find out that he has a crush on her as well.
But, the next day, when she recounts the previous day's confessions to the boy, he only looks at her with a perplexed expression. After some investigation, she finds out that the boy she called is not the same boy she fell in love with. In fact, he doesn't exist in this universe at all. He is the boy's alternate universe counterpart, who has fallen in love with the MC's own AU self, who too is blissfully unaware of his crush.
Hijinks ensue as the two strike up a deal to give each other their darkest, most private secrets in order to equip the other with the weapons they need to conquer the heart of their other selves. While the two chase their respective loved ones, DRAMA ensues as they begin to fall in love with each other instead and question the NATURE of LOVE
>>43710078
Because he rejects your ecclesiastical lies, feudal scum. He recognises your foul lies as a plot to distract the common peasantry and comfort them with the thought that it's not a lack of wealth or materials that's the problem, no, it's *desire* for wealth and materials!
He sees your ploy. He will burn you, too. A new world is coming, ruled by the peasantry, not some self-satisfied "noble".
Spiess voran!
>>43710819
>>43710701
I mean, really, damaging the aesthetics and structural integrity of an orifice is a way better simile for an asshole than a vagina. Vaginas are designed to take cocks. Assholes go full prolapse if you plow them enough.
>>43710701
notice the blood at the end coming out of the tunnel
>>43710387
At first glance, i thought the point was that the girl in question understood the Buddha for what he was, and instead decided to drag him down to her level by loving him and basically being the deredere to his tsuntsun
>>43710837
subtle pasta.
>>43710078
Nope, still slaves to materialistic pleasures.
Attempting to leave this mortal coil is overrated
>>43710078
Honestly, even if the character is some sort of monk shooting for that kind of thing it seems probably more interesting to start them pretty far from enlightenment.
never
NEVEEEEEEEEEEEEER!
>>43710078
Two of my party members are currently items
One intentionally and the other as a result of not being smart enough to stop fucking with a rod of wonder
>That was not the pic I thought I selected
>>43710078
Denial of the material world is a dead end. Those transcendent things that ascetics strive after don't exist. We're living in a material world, and I am a material girl.
>>43712225
This. Will to power for life.
>>43710078
I suppose, if you could conciser art to be a higher purpose.
Although the art in question is a 10ft gold statue of said PC, that pisses beer into a trough.
>>43710078
Absolute destruction for the sake of universal improvement and evolution toward a better world is an higher purpose that trascend earthly desires, so yes.
In a conversation with Jack Vance, Frank Herbert said that at all times, a character has to be under pressure to move, to be forced to act, one way or the other.
PCs, being characters, are in need of some force of constant motivation, some pressure to keep the plot from stalling into a period of torpor. While a higher purpose is nice, it often lacks a sense of urgency, especially compared to motivations like hunger or a desire for safety.
With my group, I tend to follow the Cowboy Bebop principle, where the beginning of the episode has the characters broke, and regardless of how much money they made during the episode, it ends with them being broke. After a big payday, it's easy to get players to spend money, and once their pockets are empty, their desire to adventure comes as a bit of a necessity.
That's why I like characters with big appetites who are willing to spend gold like water, because it tends to mean that they're going to be easier to motivate.
>>43710078
no, of course not.
Losing your materialistic desires and pleasures SUCKS.
I lost my desire to do things, and now all I do is idle around on internet forums talking about nothing because I have nothing better t do.
2/10, not recommended.
>>43712306
>>43712225
Its an utopic purpose dummy. it is intentionally impossible to reach completely, just a mean to avoid slavery from hedonism
>>43712691
the specific end goal of losing your material desires and wants is to STOP EXISTING, anon.
That's not a utopia, that's "I'm getting off this fucking ride"- the religion.
>>43712306
>>43712715
It's funny how Buddhism and Hinduism require reincarnation of individuals to work even as they deny that the individual even exists. Without their nonsensical models of soul dynamics, freedom from suffering is as close as a loaded gun, if that's all you want.
>>43710387
Ironically, the anon pictured, in professing his knowledge of Buddhism, has demonstrated that he has failed understand its teachings.
But seriously, even Therevada Buddhism isn't exactly what you're saying here, and Mahāyāna is even more different that what you are claiming.
>>43712729
that's why you do with buddhism what you do with all religions.
Relentlessly scavenge the cool and useful bits, and ignore the boring and dumb bits.
>>43712750
tomatoes, tomatoes!
>>43712715
Yeah, and how do you exactly stop existing, in practice? its pretty obvious that's just a tool meant to help uneducated people that have zero means to discern behaviors that are damaging for their social infrastructure in a way or the other, just like any religion
but anyway, how comes that internet nerds on the RPG board out themselves as supporters of material pleasures? I mean, isn't a bit self contradictory?
>>43710078
>slaves to materialistic pleasures
Bitch, you're just jealous that you don't have a 3km space ship plated literally end to end in gold, full of loyal servants and literally dozens of my personal concubines. My servants will now escort you to the nearest airlock. Have a nice trip.
>>43712844
protip:
Enjoying tabletop games is a material pleasure.
>>43710078
Someone post that cap from a comic where some white dude is approached by his Spirit Guide, who asks him "if he wants to make five million dollars".
>>43712860
Uh, not really. you get pleasure from what happens in your brain, therefore is an intellectual pleasure like reading a book or watching a movie. material pleasure is eating, drinking, sex, working, and the like.
>>43712933
are you EXISTING and partaking in the joys of the world?
Yes?
Material as shit.
>>43712858
but....but Hijiri does own a boat
or did
>>43710701
>Not claiming your territory.
What are you, a pleb?
![1d635e509df0539e1c27c3bcd468dda2[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/D2PDdG8.jpg "1d635e509df0539e1c27c3bcd468dda2[1].jpg")
>>43713031
It's also a temple, an interdimensional vessel and a palanquin.
>>43710078
FUCK byakuren and FUCK budshits
>>43713289
Seiga, please go and stay go.
>>43712691
>intentionally
No, such belief systems are absolutely not intentionally impossible. That's a post modern justification.
Is violence a higher cause?
>>43712979
Nah. There's intellectual pleasures and material pleasures. RPGing is in the former category.
>>43710260
>>43713450
superior tao master race > filthy budshit peasant nigger
>>43712879
>>43710078
Given that we're all half a mile underground, killing skeletons and goblins in the hope that some of them have something shiny worth nicking, take an educated guess.
>>43713495
>are absolutely not intentionally impossible.
There was a division between intelligent and stupid people even in the bronze age, you know.
>>43710634
>implying you must care for your fellow man to help him
Help given from pity, empathy, or a desire to assuage one's own guilt is impure on the part of the giver, although it may make no difference to the receiver.
>>43710669
Somehow, I read that as "a couple kids and some licorice around the whorehouses" and it didn't make it less good.
>>43713495
>>43712691
Yeah, it's pretty clear that enlightenment was supposed to be actually attainable by people who did the right things. Everything from Buddhism's origin story to the later myths that grew around it attests to the belief that ordinary people can and should do it. Interesting that a state of mind which should be observable and more widespread than ever does not actually appear in anyone.
>be lazy
>be greedy
>beat all these enlightened faggots
capitalism ho
>>43714024
>There was a division between intelligent and stupid people even in the bronze age, you know.
That's true, though spouting bullshit for the sole people of wasting as many people's time as possible isn't the mark of intelligence.
I'm also not sure that, say, Jesus or Plato just thought to themselves one day, "Hey, lets make up some nonsense to waste other people's time, so they don't enjoy themselves."
My cleric is a cleric of a war god. material pleasures and transcendence is one in the same.
>>43710078
Only one of them shuffled on to the great beyond, and that was due to some unfortunate circumstances.
>>43710078
Not slaves but also not looking for a higher purpose (because our heads aren't up our asses).
>>43716936
>interpretation: not unless they're dead
>>43710723
That's meant to be a butthole.
>>43713906
One of my players is a Black Mage and chose to have Doom a toxic mentor spirit as his Mentor.
I didn't make him roll a composure roll it was of his own free will that he did this...
He killed the friend of a Girl he liked by ramming him with the deckers motorcycle that he borrowed.
After his date with her he saw him walking the streets at night.
When he first met the dude he fucking Death Touched him while she was busy preparing the food inside of the Stuffer Shack.
My plan is to either get him to fucking reject Death and fight him to be free of his influence or he just becomes a Toxic Mage.
I should mention he probed a dude and took his greatest fear and used it against him before mindwiping him to the poin he made the guy fucking weep.
>>43715521
Modern society discourages the exploration and fulfillment of the self for a greater purpose in exchange for the slaving of one's time and energy to checking off the little list of achievements for being 'successful', from going to college to getting a high paying job, marrying, owning a home, and raising children so that they can repeat the process without ever attaining enlightenment or genuine satisfaction regarding life
>>43717389
On the contrary, if modern society promotes anything, its that it definitely encourages pursuing satisfaction above marriage or having kids.
>>43717531
Rendering the exploration of the self and the search for contentment more necessary for people to obtain some measure of happiness in an increasingly materialistic and artificial world does not mean that society encourages such explorations.
>>43717389
There's a huge market for all that bullshit though. People are desperate for something to bring meaning to their lives precisely because they're aware of their own slavery. Fulfillment and all that spiritual shit had become another commodity. Consumerism wins. Life sucks, deal with it.
>>43710078
My PC is a slave to trying to become immortal.
>>43710701
Pussies are literally made for fucking.
>>43717651
>increasingly materialistic
The fuck does that even mean? Has there been a point that society has encouraged people to be more fixated on the pursuit of feeling good about themselves than today?
If the pursuit of jerking off over your identity and your personal enjoyment is the opposite of materialism, then modern society is the least materialistic its ever been.
>>43717654
Funny you say that because my character makes a living that way.
>>43710078
we kill people for money.
We've killed a lot of people for a lot of money.
So uh, I'd say we have that material thing under control, thank you very much.
>>43717832
What if my party killed some king for being an evil piece of shit, and then since everything was burning anyway (We didn't do it,no really, we were completely usresponsible for that and are currently trying to fix itfor evil reasons), and was going to give some random victim/survivor of the king's shit and equal share of the moneybefore killing her for trying to kill us and take it all.?
>>43717774
Is it fulfilling work?
>>43717922
Pays for threesomes with super models, so yes.
>>43710078
is "Being extremely fabulous" a higher purpose? Because if so my barbarian is a transcendent master.
>>43710078
Does vengeance count as a higher purpose? It's pretty immaterial.
My paladin is actually fairly close to something like enlightenment, at least for a paladin. He believes his god is everywhere, has a hand in everything, and he himself is only a single cog in a vast machine that's keeping the universe running more or less in order.
This sort of focus and surety allows him to be very calm, to think carefully about things before acting, and to ignore many sorts of temptation because of his singular path and duty.
He's still very focused on the material though. He's not doing what he does in the name of a god of justice because he thinks there's no other choice - he wants the world to be fair and for people to be treated how they deserve to be treated.
>>43710094 Reminds me of Meng Hao from I Shall Seal the Heavens
>>43710078
>higher purpose
You fucked up your pic then, m8
>>43710078
my PC gives me:
- internet access
- is my DVD/BluRay player
- is my music centre
- and allows me to write
That is all.
>>43713524
>I don't know what material means.
Let me help you.
Does it EXIST?
If so, it's a material thing. Buddhism says don't get attached to it, it's just an illusion.
>>43720558
Ah, so as the Buddha doesn't truly exist, it's OK to love him. Makes sense.
>>43710078
> transcended earthly desires for a higher purpos
> pic of a necrophobic hag who helps man-eating monsters
WHAT
My character technically has the intelligence of a large animal. He doesn't really care about material goods.
>>43720257
Mine too, I also like to play games on mine. Are they supposed to do more?
>>43719801
Meng Hao is more greedy for power than he is for money at this point.
>>43710078
They tend to walk the line between true enlightenment and loitering around to cross over with all of their friends who are secretly all her.
Buddhism is weird.
>>43720638
if you THINK you love something that is completely a fabrication that you invented just now
that's a MATERIAL pleasure
it's an attachment to something, even if that something exists only within your own mind
to say that it isn't is to say that want isn't real
>>43720734
What about food? Water? The propagation of his/her species?
>>43710078
She has about a kilo of gemstones in jewellery on her and in her travel pack. That's travelling light.
>>43710078
Higher purposes are for people with souls.
>tfw construct
>>43710078
On a scale from 0 to Scrooge McDuck, how materialistic is wanting beer, food and girls?
>>43710078
>>43710078
My Barbarian would always forego money. Who needs it?
After we killed the BBEG, we ended up in his treasure room. There was a gigantic crystal there, that the party was hoping to sell, but we also knew the BBEG was using it for evil even after his death.
I ran to smash it while the party was divvying up the treasure chests. A portal appeared and I leaped in without a second thought.I had to retire the character because the rest of the party wanted to meticulously loot corpses instead
>>43722023
I see it as more of a binary thing.
Do you care about possessions that exist outside the self, beyond their utilitarian use?
Food is a necessity to life, but not if it's an indulgence used for pleasure.
Beer is selfish.
Girls are possessions, in this context.
So yes, your character is materialistic. Just like Scrooge MacDuck
>>43720731
doesnt she help them...NOT be man eating monsters though?
I mean Murasa's entire existence is "be ghost who sinks ships" and now she doesnt live in the ocean anymore
>>43720558
>it's just an illusion
That makes it better than the real thing.
>>43722283
In what way?
>>43722322
Fantasy can be be perfect something reality will never achieve. I'd say we need lies to go on living but more importantly we need lies to be human. Say I told you to picture a dog, then to picture wings, so far that isn't anything special, subhuman animals like dogs and cats can do that. However if I tell you to picture a dog with wings you have done something lesser animals cannot do, you lied, most valuable to yourself. A good deal of science has been done because someone had some fantasy and they did research to make it true (For example some /k/omando in the past invented the newer weapons).
There are other points such as the stress relief value or it's value in preventing mass panic but I am sleepy as fuck, and will go dream some nice lie.
>>43722217
It is mentioned in the fluff that Murasa sinks boats of reapers nowadays.
Considering that, she didn't change a lot.
>>43723617
>It is mentioned in the fluff that Murasa sinks boats of reapers nowadays.
why does the universe hate Komachi
>>43710078
My BBEG is a quasi-buddhist extremist, who believes the best way to bring everyone to nirvana is mass murder.
>>43710078
byakuren makes my dick transcend earthly desires in it's desire to get in her
>>43725917
What about the rest of you?
love transcends petty higher purposes!
>>43725976
>
>>43725917
>>43725943
>Boner so hard it ascends to a higher plane of existence
>Sucks for you cause now you're dickless
Don't know why it made me think that
>>43713289
What was that which you just said about me, my friend? I think you ought to know that I have completed my time as a novice-monk, and I've passed through the Gateless Gate, and I've lived for over 300 cycles of rebirth. I am trained in anapanasati and I'm the most senior bhikkhuni in my local sangha. You are nothing to me but just another human being worthy of dignity and respect.
I will have compassion upon you with loving-kindness the likes of which has never been seen before in the Cycle of Samsara - you would do well to remember these words. Do you believe that you can say these things and still escape the principle of dependent origination? Perhaps you should reexamine those beliefs, brother. As we speak I am contemplating the importance of accepting your words with detachment and equanimity, so, without malice, I advise you to prepare for the storm, young one. The storm of suffering that afflicts all living creatures in this world.
You are trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth, child. Not only am I extensively trained in the Mahayana Tripitaka, but I have access to the entire Pali canon as well, and I will use its teachings to their full extent to help alleviate the suffering within you which causes you to say hurtful things about others. You could reach Nirvana anywhere, any time, and I can help you achieve enlightenment in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with the study of Koan.
If only you could understand what evil karma these words of yours would sow, perhaps you would have had the wisdom to keep silent. Nevertheless, this was beyond what you have been prepared for, and so I promise that I will do my best to ease the suffering that you have brought upon yourself. I will teach you the path of the Bodhisattva and you will revel in it. Your suffering may yet reach its end, child.
>>43726379
So cool.
>>43725943
i'd cease sinning at once if she let mehold her hand
Money is like Water in the desert.
Only a fool hordes it when he is dying of thirst.
But only an equally great fool throws it away.
Balance doesn't mean giving everything up, it means knowing all things are temporary, you don't intentionally lose them just because you can.
>>43725976
>>43726041
Isn't Touhou ridiculously heretical and blasphemous by Buddhist standards for purporting that one of Japan's biggest proponents of Buddhism was actually a Taoist false prophet all along?
>>43727133
ZUN only made that person into a touhou because it was apparently discovered he's fictional. In-lore that's explained as being forgotten.
>>43727251
Wikipedia says only semi-fictional.
>>43710837
>>43711054
someday some nipponese suits are going to be hanging out when somebody posts that and it's actually going to get made into a thing
just saying it now so when it really happens I can say 'I told you so'
>>43726465
We all would, anon.
We all would.
>>43713289
>>43713794
COW THE TAO
>>43710605
Argrath no
>>43728416
>heard you talking shit
>like I wouldn't find out
>these headphones aren't just for show
>>43728751
>Implying
>>43710217
But Anon, for he who seeketh knowledge for its own virtue, there is much earthly pleasure to be found in its acquisition, and it is this pleasure that driveth him to seek knowledge.
>>43728888
Its selective.
>>43726379
Ok, now read that whole thing in Macho Man Randy Savage's voice.
>>43728416
Which game is this? It looks like Hopeless Masquerade but with a different UI.
>>43730023
>Which game is this? It looks like Hopeless Masquerade but with a different UI.
Urban Legend in LimboTiny 2hu
My Shaodowrun PC recently converted to Catholicism. She used to be a brutish thug who murdered people for money, but now she's a brutal thug who murders people for GOD. Huge improvement.
>>43710260
it's not
it is a gender however
>>43733685
I digress. Mayonnaise is the highest of all purposes, the most sacrosanct. to deny Mayo is to deny the universe itself
>>43728416
I never noticed how stacked Byakuren was in the fighting games.
>>43734175
I'll just leave this here....
>>43730151
Is she a small girl for you?
>>43721497
TELL ME WHAT THAT'S FROM
>>43734671
That's Pokémon, anon.
>>43734726
>A fucking spinning fire golem with an anime bandaid or something
That's not fucking pocket monsters dude. What the hell are you smoking...
>>43734748
Yeah it is. It's called Golurk. Look it up.
I mean, they already had robots and stuff, like magnemite.
>>43734748
There are a shit load of them now
>>43721109
>Meng Hao is more greedy for power than he is for money at this point.
Isn't he only greedy for power for the sake of amassing money?
>>43710078
Is omnicide a higher purpose?
>>43736176
It's an action, so it depends on why you do it
>>43734208
How do you not notice those knockers
>>43738700
How strong is that wind to move her knockers like that?
>>43710078
Seems boring.
I'll stick with the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, thanks.
>>43710078
Yes
>>43742950
Obviously she isn't addicted to materialistic pleasures enough. Her clothes don't even properly fit, and her glasses are all cloudy and no good for seeing through.
>>43716283
Fucking Moe Tendency
>>43741220
Nanosutras, hun.
(Not an explanation, I was just dying to use that phrase.)
>>43710078
One might say that to unify the world is a higher purpose.
