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Life in NobodysHomeLand
So I set a 10-minute limit on Whingey Wizard's turn and he readily agreed to it, with the difficulty now being enforcing that limit without unduly embarrassing him. Everybody has a deadly sin, and his is Pride. (In case you're wondering, mine is Gluttony.)
So I figured a beeping timer would be too obnoxious, and started pouring over Amazon for an attractive 10-minute sand timer (I refuse to call them "hourglasses" if they're not measuring HOURS, darn it!). The pickings were slim, but we finally found a fairly nice brass model that we ordered.
But there, right under it, was a beautifully-wrought cast bronze dragon timer. So I added it to the cart, with no idea whatsoever what its period was. It was just too pretty.
Fortunately, it just arrived and it's a 5-minute timer, so Whingey Wizard gets 2 dragons per turn, with a 5-minute warning, up until the point one of the kids inevitably smashes it.
You buy pretty things. You have cats and kids. Pretty things go boom. Such is the way of the universe. And life is good.
EDIT: I was bemused at the absolutely loving packaging job they did on it, with each bulb individually wrapped, and then a styrofoam cast, and then reinforcement around that, and I was looking at it thinking, "I give you one month, little hourglass. Maybe two, if you're lucky."
MY kids have Nerf wars and throw pillows all over the house. Lisamarlene's kids are typically polite, but curious, and will ask to see and hold the hourglass. I've honestly never had them drop something made of glass in my house, but I figure the more valuable it is, the more likely it is to happen.
tell the children I am disppointed, but unsurprised. Kids will be kids.
I will never forget one time period in elementary school where I spilled stuff all over my grandma's floor 4 days out of 5 for the week. Grandma was mad the first 2 times, but was much softer on me the third- she said I was probably growing and my perpsective was changing.
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I am reflective, but naked.
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WTAF? It costs more than one of your new Ikea chairs.
I'm just gonna start calling you Shiro already.
You know darned well that Shiro would have bought the one where the sand was all epoxied down so it didn't actually work!
And yeah, it was barely more than the chairs, but in spite of being "cheap Chinese trinket" material (it's actually just resin with a bronze finish), it's a really pretty little thing. And c'mon -- they're IKEA chairs. You wanna start taking bets on which lasts longer, the hourglass or the chairs?
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I am reflective, but naked.
So you're duct tape?
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I am reflective, but naked.So you're duct tape?
Nah, he's just wearing duct tape. The wife hid his supersuit, so he had to improvise when Danger™ appeared.
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@Syrus, I’ve heard good things about the Spheres books, thanks for the recommendation. As for why I like 4e, here’s a wall o' text of things that came to mind between reading your post yesterday and now:
My fandom of 4e is essentially based on its design ethos: That D&D is a role playing game, and that the game part of that is as important as the role play part. Further – despite D&D originally being played as a kind of fantasy Vietnam for ne’er-do-well life-is-cheap treasure hunters – what many of us have always wanted and expected from D&D is an action-adventure rpg, specifically. Following from this ethos, we get a few goals:
---Combat should be fun for everyone, in and of itself. Hence combat roles made explicit, the at-will/encounter/daily/utility power structure, resilient 1st level characters, and the emphasis on both PC-v-PC balance and PC-v-monster balance. As a DM, I love being able to say “Anything classic 4e goes” during chargen, picking/making opponents within the party’s level range, and trusting that we’ll end up with a fun and challenging tactical combat experience. (MMs 1 & 2 are inconsistent at times, but with latter MMs it really is “Pick something level-appropriate and go!”) Out of combat stuff isn’t quite as even-keeled, but even then with few exceptions everyone’s got something to bring to the table, so to speak.
---The rules and gameplay expectations should be transparent. Your rogue can be charming, wily, or thuggish; this is how to achieve that. This is the gear that PCs are expected to have; if you want to run a loot-lite game, just replace the lost bonuses. Varying up encounter types keeps things interesting; here’s how to do that. Different players want different things; here’s how to keep them engaged by giving them those things. And so on.
As an exemplary anecdote of the above, near the end of my 3.5 days I began reverse-engineering monsters to fit stats to CR – I was basically trying to treat CR as monster level, as 4e does. Just not as successfully, because I didn’t realize about D&D what 4e makes explicit – that monsters not only have a challenge-level, but also a ‘caste.’ Minion-caste monsters (kobolds, goblins, other humanoids as level progress) are largely meant to be mob-threats and to die in droves, while solo-caste monsters (like dragons) are meant to threaten the entire party alone. I am embarrassed to remember how many times I created a cakewalk or TPK situation in 3e because I didn’t realize this fact and was trying to use CR as a reliable/absolute measure of threat. It looks like PF 2e is going the 4e route here, which I find intriguing.
On the topic of monster design: I wonder if design-by-game-logic a la 3e could be done in a way that satisfies both world-building and playability concerns. But I haven’t really thought it thru yet.
---Chargen should be a balance of meaningful choices and intuitive simplicity. With few exceptions, restrictions exist to reinforce roles and game balance, rather than to carry on Gygax or Arneson’s vision of Things We Threw Against the Wall Because We Thought They’re Cool – paladins can be any alignment, etc..
On alignment in general: I’m actually somewhat of a traditionalist in that I like the concept in hypothesis, and the nine-alignment grid in particular appeals to the symmetry-loving inside of me. It’s just that alignment gets tangled up with things it’s got no business with in every edition until 4e, so given the choice I’d rather go the 4e way where you can write ‘CG’ in that entry on your character sheet or leave it blank for all that it matters. I’ll be curious to see where PF 2e goes with this.)
---Chargen should be about choices, not randomly-dictated outcomes. I.e., standard array / point buy is default, and hit points over hit dice.
---Playability should take priority over realism. D&D has always made vague nods toward realism, but they’ve sporadic and inconsistent. For example, WotC D&D has detailed rules for things like jumping, where a character’s size is taken into account, down to the foot – while at the same time having these gamist rules like characters aiming swords with their strength. (Yeah, it can be debated until Freehold becomes a Whedon fan; the point is that anything that interacts with D&D’s combat abstractions tend to do weird game-y things.) The 4e ethos is to drop this pretense of realism whenever some other concern is involved. For example 4e assumes that anyone happy with the I-aim-swords-with-my-Strength status quo, for example, will also be happy with every class applying similar trope-logic to its attack stat. (Trope logic as in, “PCs who wear heavy armor and swing big swords should be big and strong like we imagine, so let’s apply Strength to to-hit rolls because that’s a simple way to achieve this trope.”) Now personally, I have a strong simulationist streak in me and I do find nods to realism appealing – in fact this is a goal in the heartbreaker I’m continually tinkering with -- but all in all I don’t feel that D&D in general does realism any better than 4e does, so a lot of the game-y things that bug other D&D fans about 4e just aren’t an issue for me.
---And I’ll end with this 4e trait, because to me it’s a huge strength: 4e is neat, consistent, and well, crafted. 3e started D&D down this path with its d20 standardization, but left and created quite a few odd wrinkles. The traditional turn undead rule that works on this odd little subsystem for no good reason. (PF also fixed this, so woot!) Spell levels that are gained at each odd caster level, except 19, because convention. (As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m curious whether PF 2e is adding 10th level spells as a sort of normal-progression capstone, or as an epic level spell mechanic.)
---In a nutshell, it’s not that I want the 4e experience and only the 4e experience over all other editions and rpgs. It’s that 4e comes a whole lot closer to its goals and potentials than any other edition gets to theirs.
So there. More than you ever wanted to know about my D&D tastes. That I'm not even exercising currently. :/
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...how is it these children have had Chromebooks for five years, have consistently used Google Drive that entire time, and never learned the basic keyboard shortcuts? I just walked them through fixing their font for MLA formatting, and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Shift-> blew their minds.
Ctrl-Shift-What?
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I am reflective, but naked.
That's gotta help at the dance clubs...
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...how is it these children have had Chromebooks for five years, have consistently used Google Drive that entire time, and never learned the basic keyboard shortcuts? I just walked them through fixing their font for MLA formatting, and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Shift-> blew their minds.If you grew up in a dual-computer household (MacOS + Windows) you learned early to give up on keyboard shortcuts because they use different keys. I still frequently mess up when I'm trying to write something on the Mac.
That's about the only excuse I can think of...
CTRL + A + A
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Well, I'll just say that I'm old, and I use shortcuts all the time on my Windows machine, but I won't touch 'em on my Mac. I've just learned that if it isn't in my right-click menu, it isn't that important.Falls flat to me. I had a graphic design class back-to-back with a business class my senior year of high school. Went immediately from a Mac to a PC, still relied heavily on shortcuts and usually only had one or two false starts with Apple-Shift vs Ctrl-Shift or whatever....how is it these children have had Chromebooks for five years, have consistently used Google Drive that entire time, and never learned the basic keyboard shortcuts? I just walked them through fixing their font for MLA formatting, and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Shift-> blew their minds.If you grew up in a dual-computer household (MacOS + Windows) you learned early to give up on keyboard shortcuts because they use different keys. I still frequently mess up when I'm trying to write something on the Mac.
That's about the only excuse I can think of...
Nah, if you were old, you wouldn't even thought of using right-click on Mac...
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I've had enough tentacle experiences to last a lifetime, no thank you. My Gee M in her great wisdom decided that I should be dealing with an ebul wizard, who promptly beat me in inititiatve and black tentacled the crap out of me. Moral of the story: Always carry lube(aka wand of grease)*Sniffles, and wipes teary eyes*
They grow up so fast!
Will you lend me a hand Freehold? I guess its time for that conversation now...
Mort, we have to talk about the School Boys/Girls and the Tentacle monsters...
Go for a freedom of movement effect instead. Grease just invites fire spells. And the last thing you want is to be trapped in a field of tentacles while on fire.
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This was actually relevant! They're doing research projects on post-WWII history topics. One of them asked why we'd boycotting the Moscow Olympics if we were allies with the USSR. So...yeah.My junior high/high school history teacher would do that - sidetracked discussions about issues surrounding Vietnam, court cases, whatever. Wouldn't be at all related to what we were actually supposed to be discussing that day. Those were the most memorable lessons.Well, I just spent half of English going on a long spiel about the history of deteriorating US-Soviet relations and the dispute between which nation won the Space Race.
Whoops.
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Falls flat to me. I had a graphic design class back-to-back with a business class my senior year of high school. Went immediately from a Mac to a PC, still relied heavily on shortcuts and usually only had one or two false starts with Apple-Shift vs Ctrl-Shift or whatever....how is it these children have had Chromebooks for five years, have consistently used Google Drive that entire time, and never learned the basic keyboard shortcuts? I just walked them through fixing their font for MLA formatting, and Ctrl-A, Ctrl-Shift-> blew their minds.If you grew up in a dual-computer household (MacOS + Windows) you learned early to give up on keyboard shortcuts because they use different keys. I still frequently mess up when I'm trying to write something on the Mac.
That's about the only excuse I can think of...
A lot of people don't teach the keyboard shortcuts anymore. Or how to use DOS commands, despite the DOS interface still being part of Windows.
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Basically, no screaming, no throwing up of the hands, no, "Students have a right to do whatever the heck they want!", just, "This is happening, we're not going to cause an uproar by stopping it or supporting it, so here's what we're doing to ensure it has a minimal impact."
For once I'm impressed by our administration.
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Yes and no. We have web filtering so it's actually pretty hard to get to places that are a no-no (to the point of it interfering with their jobs at times), and while they can download items they don't have the rights to install anything. That said, yes, things still happen from time-to-time and if their bosses think they're spending too much time on the internet I'll be asked to get a usage report and explain to said management what I see as the red flags.
In this particular case, she was afraid to click on the link to join the online meeting that she personally created.
That sounds like management-led training error, possibly from when she was still new.
One of my coworkers has not checked his work email in months because he got in pretty serious trouble for "wasting time surfing the net." It drives the managers nuts because there are some things they end up doing for him as a result and he is often out of the loop on important announcements.
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I would say I would love to play Starfinder more, but the release schedule is a major problem.
It's fine to release that slowly when you're only releasing major products or entire campaigns at once, like WotC is doing. When you're releasing the campaign in episodes, it can very quickly kill interest in continuing with the game when people learn there's two months to go before the next session.
And frankly, Starfinder just doesn't have enough material to justify using it outside of APs at the moment.
If PF2 goes down the Starfinder road for release schedule, I am afraid I will have to look to other games. I am already struggling to maintain interest in one Paizo product. I don't need two with that problem.
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Go for a freedom of movement effect instead. Grease just invites fire spells. And the last thing you want is to be trapped in a field of tentacles while on fire.
Actually pathfinder removed the flammability of grease, and I also tweaked my suit for fire immunity. There seemed to be too many cases of getting caught in breath weapons, scorching rays, fireballs and that kind of stuff. I was only level 7 at that time so be nice on that FOM ring. It's not that easy to cover EVERYTHING from shadows to weapon wielding robots to swarms all by yourself.
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My sins would be Wrath and gluttony. I've got a short fuse. I'm a practical sort of cat, so I'd recommend just using a stopwatch.
Yes, US should have banned guns ages ago. Australia stopped having shootings after guns were banned, so there's proof it works. I understand in places like Alaska where they film life below zero, you need a gun, but in cities, really?
Again, my firearm hate is legendary.
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WTAF? It costs more than one of your new Ikea chairs.
I'm just gonna start calling you Shiro already.
You know darned well that Shiro would have bought the one where the sand was all epoxied down so it didn't actually work!
And yeah, it was barely more than the chairs, but in spite of being "cheap Chinese trinket" material (it's actually just resin with a bronze finish), it's a really pretty little thing. And c'mon -- they're IKEA chairs. You wanna start taking bets on which lasts longer, the hourglass or the chairs?
Over $85 (shipping included)... It's almost 60× the price of my newish chair.
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Over $85 (shipping included)... It's almost 60× the price of my newish chair.WTAF? It costs more than one of your new Ikea chairs.
I'm just gonna start calling you Shiro already.
You know darned well that Shiro would have bought the one where the sand was all epoxied down so it didn't actually work!
And yeah, it was barely more than the chairs, but in spite of being "cheap Chinese trinket" material (it's actually just resin with a bronze finish), it's a really pretty little thing. And c'mon -- they're IKEA chairs. You wanna start taking bets on which lasts longer, the hourglass or the chairs?
Weird. It was only $51.50 for me (curious that they didn't hit me with sales tax -- they usually do), I'm Amazon Prime so no shipping, and the chairs were $50.89 apiece including tax and shipping. So when I say barely, I mean it!
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Hey, NH, full disclosure so you can make an informed decision about Saturday:
I came down with a cold last night, went in to school this morning to give an admissions tour and then went home again. I feel tired and stuffy at the moment but am going back to work tomorrow because unless you're actually in the hospital, they only give you one day off for illness.
I assume I will be *feeling* better by Saturday, but don't know if you want to risk contagion.
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** spoiler omitted **This was actually relevant! They're doing research projects on post-WWII history topics. One of them asked why we'd boycotting the Moscow Olympics if we were allies with the USSR. So...yeah.My junior high/high school history teacher would do that - sidetracked discussions about issues surrounding Vietnam, court cases, whatever. Wouldn't be at all related to what we were actually supposed to be discussing that day. Those were the most memorable lessons.Well, I just spent half of English going on a long spiel about the history of deteriorating US-Soviet relations and the dispute between which nation won the Space Race.
Whoops.
Make sure you give them the most official source possible.
:)
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My sins would be Wrath and gluttony. I've got a short fuse. I'm a practical sort of cat, so I'd recommend just using a stopwatch.
** spoiler omitted **
It helps to remember that most of the U.S. is barely-settled to almost-not-touched wilderness between two densely-populated coasts. Alaska is far from the only place you're going to encounter dangerous wildlife.
And by both historical and modern evidence, banning guns won't necessarily stop mass shootings. The reason the 1990s assault weapon ban failed is because the shooting rate went up while it was in play, proving it completely failed in its reason for simply existing. Plus, it's not that difficult to find illegal weapons, even those that are military-issue, in the U.S.; that massive amount of empty space we have in the center is a prime smuggling area, so a massive amount of weapons, drugs, people, and other illegal shipments are moved through there constantly. And with American military weapons brought from overseas by gun smugglers to be shipped through the center to other markets, there's always going to be an easy availability of firearms.
The third issue is that America's mass killing problem predates both repeating firearms and the nation itself by at least a couple hundred years. The earliest accounts of school massacres and mass killings involved bladed weapons, such as tomahawks and cavalry swords, instead of firearms.
You don't solve a problem that's been going on for nearly half a millenium by blaming a tool that's been present for maybe a fifth of the time.
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WTAF? It costs more than one of your new Ikea chairs.
I'm just gonna start calling you Shiro already.
You know darned well that Shiro would have bought the one where the sand was all epoxied down so it didn't actually work!
And yeah, it was barely more than the chairs, but in spite of being "cheap Chinese trinket" material (it's actually just resin with a bronze finish), it's a really pretty little thing. And c'mon -- they're IKEA chairs. You wanna start taking bets on which lasts longer, the hourglass or the chairs?
Hah! You say that, but as someone whose entire house is furnished from ikea, I am calling that bluff! That cheap crap takes a beating like nothing else! Seriously, what furniture does my family break every damn time? The expensive shit. Meanwhile, even when it’s half broken the ikea stuff holds together and stands up to all the abuse that kid, klutzy adults, and pets can throw at it. Okay, some of it I regret purchasing and wish it would break, but no. :P
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Hah! You say that, but as someone whose entire house is furnished from ikea, I am calling that bluff! That cheap crap takes a beating like nothing else! Seriously, what furniture does my family break every damn time? The expensive s%~$. Meanwhile, even when it’s half broken the ikea stuff holds together and stands up to all the abuse that kid, klutzy adults, and pets can throw at it. Okay, some of it I regret purchasing and wish it would break, but no. :PWTAF? It costs more than one of your new Ikea chairs.
I'm just gonna start calling you Shiro already.
You know darned well that Shiro would have bought the one where the sand was all epoxied down so it didn't actually work!
And yeah, it was barely more than the chairs, but in spite of being "cheap Chinese trinket" material (it's actually just resin with a bronze finish), it's a really pretty little thing. And c'mon -- they're IKEA chairs. You wanna start taking bets on which lasts longer, the hourglass or the chairs?
This reminds me of the time when Hermione was one and a half and she fell off the couch and smacked the back of her head on my Ikea coffee table.
I called Nobody's Home in a panic, knowing how many times he'd been to the ER with the Impii, and after asking a number of pertinent questions, he ended with, "Oh, wait, you've got that Ikea table. Hermione is going to be fine. How big is the dent in the table?"| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hey, NH, full disclosure so you can make an informed decision about Saturday:
I came down with a cold last night, went in to school this morning to give an admissions tour and then went home again. I feel tired and stuffy at the moment but am going back to work tomorrow because unless you're actually in the hospital, they only give you one day off for illness.
I assume I will be *feeling* better by Saturday, but don't know if you want to risk contagion.
Meh. Contagion doesn't much worry me. I'm just worried at the sheer number of us who aren't feeling great. I took yesterday afternoon off work (much better today), Impus Major is unbelievably slow-moving, and NobodysWife isn't feeling well, either.
The *only* cold I worry about is Impus Major's. Anything that can slow HIM down just plain scares me...
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Interesting - but you can kill so many more people with an automatic rifle then you can with a knife or bladed weapon. Guns are a great equalizer. Give me a knife? I probably couldn't harm a fly (lack str score to cleave through ribs/cave in skulls). And Coyotes, due to size differential, should generally not attack humans. If they do, club em with an umbrella and they'll get the point. Brandishing sticks or umbrellas at monkeys seems to work for deterring monkey attacks.
Bears are a totally different matter though. Bears are bad news. Seriously, I've watched animal planet. I'm not even sure if anything other then a hunting rifle can harm them before they maul you.
That said, it's nice to see different viewpoints on the issue.
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Cleaned out my yarn drawer today. I emptied half of it and now have a shopping bag stuffed full of acrylic yarn I reluctantly have to admit I am never going to use. It was just taking up space that could be better filled with yarn I actually want to use.
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Tomorrow morning is the kidlet’s last exam for this term. Woohoo! I’ve promised him a celebratory trip to five below afterwards. Because there is something about cheap trinkets that is irresistible to teens! ;)
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** spoiler omitted **
Stop it!!
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I'm pretty sure the guy my NWN character is stalking is a contract devil, and I'd love to jump out and assassinate him and give my witty one-liner but the good characters in the party are actually wanting to look at the contract first.
>_>
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The Special Forces of the American armed forces average around 1000 bullets fired per kill, if I remember the statistics correctly. The average soldier is around 5000 per kill. Cops, despite their training with firearms, are massively worse. And civilians have been known to empty handguns noted for their extreme accuracy and not harm a single person, with most shots delivered by automatic weapons being more a case of getting lucky or an accident than actually hitting the target as planned.
Yeah. As much as we mock them, when it comes to hitting targets the Imperial Storm Troopers would curbstomp nearly any modern military.
Now, note that's simply hitting the target. Many bullets, particularly the common 9mm and 5.56mm NATO, are not designed to kill. The 5.56mm NATO is intentionally designed to wound instead of killing. Combine that with modern medical technology and how familiar our doctors are with gunshot wounds and it should not surprise you to learn that most people survive getting shot, often with little more than a scar and a scary story.
By comparison, bladed weapons have a much higher lethal rate than bullets do while still maintaining the same average ratio of victims per attack. Part of it is proximity; being up close eliminates much of the dodging someone can do, so in turn using a bladed weapon severely lessens the chance of the attack having zero victims. With firearms, it's pretty common for an attack to hit no one at all, heavily balancing out those rare ones that do hit a lot of people.
As such, the idea that guns are a great equalizer is really more of a myth. One that is useful to perpetuate because it helps keep people from taking stupid risks. But, in an actual shooting, you are very likely to survive and likely to not be harmed at all. Just try to keep away from having the tube of death pointed at you in case the other guy has been eating four-leafed clovers for breakfast.
Now, that's not to say there are not good reasons for gun control. There are. But, I have to be practical in this. Just the fact making guns illegal doesn't reduce their availability or the chances of a massacre happening pretty much means it's trying to heal a severed-arm with a band-aid.
Size doesn't mean anything, especially with rabid animals. Some of them will attack you anyway, and some will definitely attack if you wield a weapon against them.
If you wield an umbrella against a bear, you will die. You need at least a shotgun for them. If it's a polar bear, and anti-tank rifle is necessary. No, I'm not joking; the Alaskan wildlife people have anti-tank rifles because of polar bears.
If we're going to stop the mass killings, we have to stop looking at the symptoms and start trying to determine the actual cause. Because nearly five hundred years of children dying in schools to massacres is nearly five hundred years too many.
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"Your contract has been terminated."
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** spoiler omitted **Stop it!!
Why? Why?
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.... granted, being an 8-wis Rogue/Assassin means she knows jack squat about Planar stuff and her assumption that Dead Devil = No More Contract is way off.
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** spoiler omitted **Stop it!!
Why? Why?
Sorry! I knew I was forgetting someone!
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** spoiler omitted **Stop it!!
Why? Why?
I'll help!
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*dances a jig in the snow and spray while juggling fire extinguishers, laptops, and chainsaws*
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** spoiler omitted **Stop it!!
Oh, come on! I was busy being a contract devil! I didn't do anything wrong!
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Snow has started to accumulate on the grass, here.
Grass? You can see the grass! Lucky!!