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Mark, the reason some GMs hate player agency is they wrote a novel plot, not an interactive game, and you can't hear their novel if you don't get aboard the railroad.
Good sandbox GMing is not at all like writing a novel. It's an outline, a bunch of possible threads, and a LOT of improv.
That's my secret VE I'm always improvising.
Not always naked however. Just this time.
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That's my secret VE I'm always improvising.Mark, the reason some GMs hate player agency is they wrote a novel plot, not an interactive game, and you can't hear their novel if you don't get aboard the railroad.
Good sandbox GMing is not at all like writing a novel. It's an outline, a bunch of possible threads, and a LOT of improv.
Me, too. I used to prep a lot, but the players ALWAYS did the unexpected.
Then I started just winging it and only prepping major encounters with BBEGs.
So far my best games have been when I am b+#&!+*#ting.
Example: last week in Savage Worlds: Fallout - Florida edition, after much improv, the party went airboating through the Kissimmee river using a mounted minigun to mow down gators that have evolved petrified scales (I feel "bigger" is overused for mutated animals and gators are terrifying as it is, so harder to kill gators are awesome) until I through the Wild Card boss at them, which I pulled out of my ass...
The dreaded Death Manatee. A FEV evolved carnivorous manatee with clawed flippers and so much fat it absorbs almost all blows. Because it was part deathclaw and manatees are called sea cows, we called it the Death Cow.
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The thing I do at this point is I think about the world around them the major Non-players-characters and what they are doing and their goals. Then I get a hook for the party to be interested then just let them do what they want. I do occasionally have to push them along so they don't spend 5 hours doing nothing. For the most part it works. Not to crap on people that run modules or plan out their whole game. I have done that but the improv method has worked best for me.
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That's my secret VE I'm always improvising.Mark, the reason some GMs hate player agency is they wrote a novel plot, not an interactive game, and you can't hear their novel if you don't get aboard the railroad.
Good sandbox GMing is not at all like writing a novel. It's an outline, a bunch of possible threads, and a LOT of improv.
Me, too. I used to prep a lot, but the players ALWAYS did the unexpected.
Then I started just winging it and only prepping major encounters with BBEGs.
So far my best games have been when I am b~&!&&@#ting.
Example: last week in Savage Worlds: Fallout - Florida edition, after much improv, the party went airboating through the Kissimmee river using a mounted minigun to mow down gators that have evolved petrified scales (I feel "bigger" is overused for mutated animals and gators are terrifying as it is, so harder to kill gators are awesome) until I through the Wild Card boss at them, which I pulled out of my ass...
The dreaded Death Manatee. A FEV evolved carnivorous manatee with clawed flippers and so much fat it absorbs almost all blows. Because it was part deathclaw and manatees are called sea cows, we called it the Death Cow.
So. Many. Cookies.
You've seen the manatee Justice League art by Joel Micah Harris, right?
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Fantasy NPC: Sygyn Fhial, keeper of orphans.
The Thiefmaker Of Camorr's noble counterpart.
<adds to list, yet again>
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I swear, tracking package shipments has become its own form of entertainment in our COVID apocalypse.
You all may recall my staircase's epic 2+ week journey to finally arrive at my home, only for me to learn that its dimensions were wrong so I had to ship it back.
This time I ordered stair stringers to build my own staircase.
Step 1 (August): "We're out of stock. We'll have them back in September."
Step 2 (September):
- Monday, September 21, 10:55 am: Arrived in San Pablo facility
- Tuesday, September 22, 3:06 am: Arrived in Oakland facility
- Tuesday, September 22, 9:20 pm: Arrived in San Pablo facility
The most hilarious thing? If you look on the map, Albany is pretty much exactly between Oakland and San Pablo. They drove through my town twice with the stringers on their truck, and missed both times.
I'm guessing that their delivery algorithm is having issues because of exactly that positioning, though. "It's close to Oakland and we have a delivery truck going to Albany from Oakland tomorrow. Ship it to Oakland!"
"Ooops. It arrived too late to get on that truck! The next delivery truck going to Albany is going out of San Pablo! Ship it to San Pablo!"
It's still fun watching the package bounce back and forth across my city.
(And I can't install the steps until Saturday at the earliest, so it's not like I care if they're a few days late...)
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According to Bob-O this is the last really warm day of the season.
I'm very disappointed.
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That's my secret VE I'm always improvising.Mark, the reason some GMs hate player agency is they wrote a novel plot, not an interactive game, and you can't hear their novel if you don't get aboard the railroad.
Good sandbox GMing is not at all like writing a novel. It's an outline, a bunch of possible threads, and a LOT of improv.
Me, too. I used to prep a lot, but the players ALWAYS did the unexpected.
Then I started just winging it and only prepping major encounters with BBEGs.
So far my best games have been when I am b$!~%&!~ting.
My best advice for GMs on this: don't be afraid to just tell your players "ok you did something unexpected, take a 5-10 minute drink/rr/smoke break, let me do some quick off the cuff adjusting, and we'll resume in a bit".
A lot of GMs seem to be afraid of ever appearing to be anything less than prescient with their players, but any decent group who does something that throws off your prep should be willing to spare a few minutes for a quick revision.
My current game is pretty straightforward and linear,though we're currently in a lightly sandbox chapter, but my next planned campaign is going to be very open ended, if I can get it going the way o want.
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That's my secret VE I'm always improvising.Mark, the reason some GMs hate player agency is they wrote a novel plot, not an interactive game, and you can't hear their novel if you don't get aboard the railroad.
Good sandbox GMing is not at all like writing a novel. It's an outline, a bunch of possible threads, and a LOT of improv.
Me, too. I used to prep a lot, but the players ALWAYS did the unexpected.
Then I started just winging it and only prepping major encounters with BBEGs.
So far my best games have been when I am b~&!&&@#ting.
Example: last week in Savage Worlds: Fallout - Florida edition, after much improv, the party went airboating through the Kissimmee river using a mounted minigun to mow down gators that have evolved petrified scales (I feel "bigger" is overused for mutated animals and gators are terrifying as it is, so harder to kill gators are awesome) until I through the Wild Card boss at them, which I pulled out of my ass...
The dreaded Death Manatee. A FEV evolved carnivorous manatee with clawed flippers and so much fat it absorbs almost all blows. Because it was part deathclaw and manatees are called sea cows, we called it the Death Cow.
So. Many. Cookies.
You've seen the manatee Justice League art by Joel Micah Harris, right?
Nope
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*COUGH COUGH* hck I think you used the wrong spell...Yet. The day's just begun!Possible... but I don't have a gorilla torso soo questionable.really if very small quantum particles have a degree of random probability that randomness would only add up more and more the more macro you get. This would explain the dream I had about walking on the moon.Or you're a member of the Umbrella Academy and had your memory wiped by the one that hears all the g$+&!+n rumors.Ibbley bibbley zibbley zawso,
Give Vidmaster7 a GORILLA'S TORSO!!!There you go.
Hold on.
*Squints at grimoire*
Ah! There we are. Should be 'jibbley', not 'bibbley'. My mistake.
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Building a patio with slabs.
It's not as fun as it sounds.
But you cover a lot of area with each slab so that's nice. But it's already a huge area.
Tomorrow I'll get to cut them. Which will be a lot of fun.
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Also, it doesn't matter what kind of vehicle you're in, if you're sitting in your truck with it parked in a driveway pointed towards the road people will slow down because they think it's a speed trap.
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The Difference Between Contractors and Human Beings:
NobodysHome: Wow! That's terrible! You just had two vertebrae replaced two weeks ago and you're already working!
Contractor: Yeah, but I'm still really weak. I can barely use my elbows or lift with my arms.
NH: Well, maybe I should rent a van and pick up the tub myself.
C: What kind of tub is it?
NH: Well, it's really heavy. It's a stone tub that weights 112 pounds...
C: 112 pounds? I can't believe it's that light! Yeah, we can pick it up for you no problem...
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That sounds pretty light to me.
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EDIT: It all starts with the photoelectric effect studied by Einstein that proved quantization of electrons (hence "quantum mechanics"). Once you show that there's a minimum allowable unit in the universe, everything else follows pretty quickly (and crazily). But every college kid repeats the experiment. I did it. Shiro's son is doing it now. One of those fundamental, "Change the universe" experiments that you can do in any college physics lab.
Interesting. I'll check it out.
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Another dead Pathfinder character!
This time, it's a bard, taken down by a combination of Bodak level drain and the Shriek of Pain employed by a sort of ooze consisting of green slime and corpse parts. O well.
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Another dead Pathfinder character!
This time, it's a bard, taken down by a combination of Bodak level drain and the Shriek of Pain employed by a sort of ooze consisting of green slime and corpse parts. O well.
On the other hand I just survived Plaguestone (PF2). Only just. But still.
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EDIT: It all starts with the photoelectric effect studied by Einstein that proved quantization of electrons (hence "quantum mechanics"). Once you show that there's a minimum allowable unit in the universe, everything else follows pretty quickly (and crazily). But every college kid repeats the experiment. I did it. Shiro's son is doing it now. One of those fundamental, "Change the universe" experiments that you can do in any college physics lab.Interesting. I'll check it out.
Yeah, it was the great big, "Oh, holy carp! There really *is* a 'minimum' to the universe!" experiment.
Up until then, all the Greek philosophers and their whole, "You can cut things up infinitely often, into infinitely-miniscule pieces" was generally accepted, so all of physics was, "What's the next-smaller piece?"
All of sudden, things had minimums.
It was an eye-opener.
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The other really interesting stuff to read up on is the whole "is light a wave or a particle" debate that dominated late 19th/early 20th century physics.
The answer is, "It's both, and you can make it behave in whatever manner you feel like," is mind-blowing. And the simple diffraction experiments you do to switch it back and forth between particle and wave are really stunning to experience.
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EDIT: It all starts with the photoelectric effect studied by Einstein that proved quantization of electrons (hence "quantum mechanics"). Once you show that there's a minimum allowable unit in the universe, everything else follows pretty quickly (and crazily). But every college kid repeats the experiment. I did it. Shiro's son is doing it now. One of those fundamental, "Change the universe" experiments that you can do in any college physics lab.Interesting. I'll check it out.Yeah, it was the great big, "Oh, holy carp! There really *is* a 'minimum' to the universe!" experiment.
Up until then, all the Greek philosophers and their whole, "You can cut things up infinitely often, into infinitely-miniscule pieces" was generally accepted, so all of physics was, "What's the next-smaller piece?"
All of sudden, things had minimums.
It was an eye-opener.
Akhem. The very word atom comes from Greek and means indivisible. Atomist theory of the universe was proposed by Greeks (and independently by Indian philosophers). There were philosophers that were assuming infinite divisions, but not all of them (they were probably in minority, and tended to be more mystical or at least focused on abstract ideas). Of course, there were some really weird Greek ideas of atoms—some of the cosmologies assumed an infinite number differently shaped atoms, others had a limited number of different atoms. One particularly known branch of atomistic cosmologies assumed four types of atoms: air, earth, fire, and water, with their qualities determining the qualities of material objects composed out of them—qualities shared by the four humors that supposedly run human bodies.
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Listening to all you people go on about science just makes me think of Carlos.
And now I'm missing Carlos while I'm at work. Thanks. Thanks for that.
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Licorice Kills
The story about the 54 year old construction worker is from 2016, but the danger is real.
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Akhem. The very word atom comes from Greek and means indivisible. Atomist theory of the universe was proposed by Greeks (and independently by Indian philosophers). There were philosophers that were assuming infinite divisions, but not all of them (they were probably in minority, and tended to be more mystical or at least focused on abstract ideas). Of course, there were some really weird Greek ideas of atoms—some of the cosmologies assumed an infinite number differently shaped atoms, others had a limited number of different atoms. One particularly known branch of atomistic cosmologies assumed four types of atoms: air, earth, fire, and water, with their qualities determining the qualities of material objects composed out of them—qualities shared by the four humors that supposedly run human bodies.EDIT: It all starts with the photoelectric effect studied by Einstein that proved quantization of electrons (hence "quantum mechanics"). Once you show that there's a minimum allowable unit in the universe, everything else follows pretty quickly (and crazily). But every college kid repeats the experiment. I did it. Shiro's son is doing it now. One of those fundamental, "Change the universe" experiments that you can do in any college physics lab.Interesting. I'll check it out.Yeah, it was the great big, "Oh, holy carp! There really *is* a 'minimum' to the universe!" experiment.
Up until then, all the Greek philosophers and their whole, "You can cut things up infinitely often, into infinitely-miniscule pieces" was generally accepted, so all of physics was, "What's the next-smaller piece?"
All of sudden, things had minimums.
It was an eye-opener.
LOL. I'm well aware that the Greeks came up with atoms, but I've also had to read the Greek mathematicians and philosophers, who were far more interested in the infinite than the finite. They did have a wide variety of ideas, so yes, I'll absolutely accept the correction. *SOME* Greeks were fascinated by the concept of infinite divisibility, and I'll opine that the idea of the atom arose from an attempt to stop the paradoxes that arose.
(Almost certainly apocryphal, but what I've "heard" is that the atom was dreamed up precisely to deal with Zeno's dichotomy paradox. But Zeno was a fun guy, as you can tell from the rest of the entries. And the version of Zeno's paradox presented to me was significantly different: It takes a finite amount of time to get halfway to your destination. Once you're there, it takes a finite amount of time to get halfway again. And so on, and so forth, until you're adding up an infinite amount of time which must be infinite and therefore you never get there...)
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The story about the 54 year old construction worker is from 2016, but the danger is real.
I'll take my chances.
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The story about the 54 year old construction worker is from 2016, but the danger is real.I'll take my chances.
Amen, sister!
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It's like those mouse studies on dangerous chemicals: The kind where a human would have to eat 10 pounds a day of the dangerous substance to have the same risk.
Moral of the story: Don't eat a bag of licorice Every. Single. Day.
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I think I'd rather die than have to eat any amount of licorice.
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OK. My loan officer is delightful and charming, but she knows not what she asks. "Your 2018 and 2019 Federal tax returns, all pages and all schedules."
I honestly emailed her back to let her know that I go to an accountant because of all the ludicrous tax stuff I have (partial ownership of a rental property, solar panels, multiple refis on multiple loans, kids, ...), so if she REALLY wants me to scan and upload 100 pages of documents I can, but last time the loan broker just had me fax them.
Faxes may be nigh-obsolete, but holy cow! For getting that 100-page document securely from location 1 to location 2, they can't be beat.
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I'm also always amused at the loan hoops you have to jump through.
"This is a very large loan amount. Can you prove that you can afford the monthly payments?"
"Er... I'm refinancing an existing loan to drop the interest rate by a full percentage point. If I haven't missed any payments in the last 16 years, what makes you think I'll suddenly start missing them because I'm paying less money to you?"
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The story about the 54 year old construction worker is from 2016, but the danger is real.I'll take my chances.
My kinda lady.
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It's like those mouse studies on dangerous chemicals: The kind where a human would have to eat 10 pounds a day of the dangerous substance to have the same risk.
Moral of the story: Don't eat a bag of licorice Every. Single. Day.
I don't tell you how to tell me what to do so don't tell me how to do what you tell me to do.
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Co-worker: Why is there a reciprocating saw in our truck?
Me: Entertainment?
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oh, no, someone send help, i’ve been in the rules forum for days, it’s dark and lonely in here and am hungry for for pie
(Also the other day I just re-read a thread I participated in from 2013 and what a train wreck that was. Oh, tail terror, you so crazy-cray.)
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Because you might be trying to cash out your equity due to losing your job.I'm also always amused at the loan hoops you have to jump through.
"This is a very large loan amount. Can you prove that you can afford the monthly payments?"
"Er... I'm refinancing an existing loan to drop the interest rate by a full percentage point. If I haven't missed any payments in the last 16 years, what makes you think I'll suddenly start missing them because I'm paying less money to you?"
Yeah, except the very first thing they do is check that you still have your job. THEN they ask for about 150 pages of additional documentation...
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oh, no, someone send help, i’ve been in the rules forum for days, it’s dark and lonely in here and am hungry for for pie
(Also the other day I just re-read a thread I participated in from 2013 and what a train wreck that was. Oh, tail terror, you so crazy-cray.)
what i'm saying is that i want pie; like a really tasty pie
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specifically, please, i am requesting, someone send me a key-lime pie
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(I'm, uh... I'm- to be clear, I'm not actually asking anyone to send me a pie. I don't know how anyone would do that, anyway, but I love ye FaWtLeans, and if there were a group of people that may figure out a way, yuuz gaiz could be that group. So, I'm clarifying, the above is a joke.)
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Too late.
CH, pie the man.
Undead rabbit seems less like a pet and more like a science (dark arts) experiment.Also, the rabbit may have been undead....
I don't mind pets. Once upon a time, I had a gnome with a rabbit and a duck as pets. But he didn't take them into combat, and if they died I really wouldn't have cared. But tying your character's abilities to an easy to kill critter is just a bad idea in my mind.
("It's still good!")
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Today's Mini-Tirade: Windows Auto-Boot
So, call me old-fashioned, but once I've shut my computer down, I expect it to stay off. Imagine my concern when, over the last two days, every single time I shut down my Windows machine it starts itself back up again. Did I get a virus? Is my hardware failing?
Nope; it's standard Windows 10 stupidity: "Wake to perform scheduled maintenance" (including powering up from being completely off), and the utterly terrifying security loophole that is, "Wake on internet access" (WTF, Microsoft?).
So, I turned all that "stuff" off and now my machine is staying off, as it should be.
But the fact that the default settings are, "Turn on whenever you feel like it, whether or not the user is around" is just so beyond-the-pale awful that I'm surprised even Microsoft came up with it.
Off computers should stay off, thanks.
(Impus Minor blew a circuit breaker two weeks ago when he was running the portable AC unit in his room. He said his computer booted itself and caused the blow. I didn't believe him. Now I do.)
Oh, my word, I hate this feature.
Currently, I'm struggling for space on my computer and even though I'd opted out of updates until I could get more space Win10 did not care and forced-updated me anyway. Of course it failed, but now, even though I've cleared out space, I'm sitting with 5 Gig of failed updates hogging up space on my computer, but not able to successfully finish updating because it got interrupted by running out of space when I told it not to do that;alsdjkfaj;lsdnkvak;cvn skl;fnsio'bsnvlscl'nm a
s'l
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WIN TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN
... uh, nothing. What. Sorry. Where were we?
Rabbit-deep one hybrid?I didn't set out to have an undead bunny. We were on a boat, the boat sank, the rabbit was in its cage. We assumed it had drowned. The GM says "As you are looking through the wreckage, you see the rabbit, still in the cage, looking at you." "Didn't it drown?" we asked. "Probably, yet there it is, moving around," he said. So, we just assumed it was undead from then on, but never tested it to find out. All I know for sure is that I didn't need to buy food for it anymore as it didn't seem to eat.Undead rabbit seems less like a pet and more like a science (dark arts) experiment.Also, the rabbit may have been undead....
I don't mind pets. Once upon a time, I had a gnome with a rabbit and a duck as pets. But he didn't take them into combat, and if they died I really wouldn't have cared. But tying your character's abilities to an easy to kill critter is just a bad idea in my mind.
Hm.
Rabbit.
Plus fish.
... tastes like... chicken?