| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I’ve been trying to control my barracks language, but it slips out sometimes. I find that working on group norms is the big thing. I do really well in company that expects polite language, but get me with my old platoon mates and the floodgates open.Yeah, but I'm going to just hazard a guess that you don't do it while walking the dog in your neighborhood.
Maybe the dog is the bad influence?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Mayday! Mayday! We are going down! We are going DOWN!!! Our defenses have been punitrated! Mayday! Mayday!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I forget my phone at home and work four hours, and the best you can do is 9 posts.
I haven't learned to post in my sleep... YET
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I only drink alcohol on days that start with "T". Tuesday, Thursday, Today, Tomorrow...
Don't forget Twednesday!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tiny T-Rex dropped off.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It cracks me up every year how unprepared people are for the mid October drop in temps.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
New neighbors moving in are from Oregon.
Time to brush up on my "You betcha!" and "Oh ya!"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Last day of work tomorrow.
I might be a bit sick. We'll see if I spend the weekend in bed or not. I stayed healthy six months of work, of course...
John: I'm so sorry. Prayers for you, your friend, and all loved ones involved.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
New neighbors moving in are from Oregon.
Time to brush up on my "You betcha!" and "Oh ya!"
Who am I supposed to seduce due to that family guy skit? I think it was someone from Wisconsin, not Oregon, but the accent sounds familiar. I need to see that episode again.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Why NobodysHouse is Always Cluttered
NobodysHome: OK, guys! We're going to try again! This time we're going to go through all the stuffies and figure out which ones to keep, which ones to give away, and which ones to throw away, OK?
NobodysFamily: Sounds good, NobodysHome!
NH: OK, all set! Try to go through this pile this week, OK?
NF: No problem, NobodysHome!
NH: Well, THAT was a failure. OK. Let's try this. Every day I'll put 5 stuffies on the dining room table, and you guys can sort those 5, OK?
NF: No problem, NobodysHome!
NH: Where did the 5 stuffies on the dining room table go?
Impus Major: I was clearing the table for the game, so I put them back in the pile for you!
NF: We did it! You can throw out these two!
NH: Where are the other three?
NF: We put them back in the pile for you!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hate prestige classes, personally.
Most of them require too much planning and are too niche for my tastes.
What do you mean don't you like taking 4 ranks of this, 8 ranks of that, and the +5 bubblegum-blowing feat to become a green star wizard with a capstone that may actually lower your hit points?!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Lol. Yeah, I had that problem with decluttering too. Had. Now I pull out the stuff, sort the things I don’t want to keep into a pile, one category at a time so the pile doesn’t get too big, and then the family gets the right to veto my decisions on any items they feel strongly about. They hate decluttering week because I keep coming to them and making them decide about each category, but it’s smaller decisions made in increments of five minutes or less, so it gets done.
Except for my husband’s room. That is a giant mess with piles of crap everywhere because it’s all his crap and I can’t sort it for him like I do in shared spaces. So the piles just sit there and grow larger...*shudder* Every time he complains about the kidlet’s mess I laugh and laugh :P
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, I have two major frustrations:
(1) Each family member has a designated "crap space" I won't touch. They can dump whatever they want, and I won't disturb it. Yet they always, always, ALWAYS dump crap all over the living room and dining room tables (which I clear at least twice a day) because there's too much crap in their crap space to fit any more.
(2) I get yelled at with some regularity for moving their stuff. It's simple: If you don't want me to move it, don't leave it lying in the middle of a public area.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well, on the bright side/down side, I just hit a show-stopper bug in my environment, so my day just got a LOT lighter...
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
And I have to say, the more I play with them, the more I'm loving Hero Points.
Last night the two casters (shaman and necromancer) got caught by two barbarians, and it was... bad. The shaman had 3 hit points left, and the necromancer had 11, so one of them was going to die.
Cue the expenditure of one Hero Point for the shaman to cast Fly, take a second action to grapple the necromancer, and then a move action to fly up as fast as the spell would take him (i.e., not a heck of a lot, but enough to get out of reach).
The barbarians were left facing the bloodrager. Unhappy barbarians.
Just an epic, epic moment, brought about by Hero Points.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The throwing knives have come. Both myself and the call centre manager wanted to try them out, but despite the fact that we've got a load of lovely scrap tables which were only going to get dumped and would make super targets, we weren't allowed to chuck them at anything. It's Health and Safety gone mad - MAD, I tell you!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And a final bit of silliness: We're playing a PRD-only campaign and I'll soon need to choose a 7th-level spell for my life oracle. I'm looking at either:
Anyone have any others they'd recommend? Otherwise I'm kind of stuck. Role-playing wise, Holy Word is far more amusing: "I have an incredibly-powerful spell, but I can never use it!"
Effectiveness-wise, Jolting Portent is likely to occasionally hamper enemy casters, but is hardly worth a 7th-level spell slot.
I do like Waves of Ecstasy because it fits in with her character concept rather well, but I'm not sure how effective it would be at our level.
Not a fan of hero points. Lots of memories of d6 star wars nonsense with force points. Hoarding is just too much of an issue. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong kind of hero points?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Not a fan of hero points. Lots of memories of d6 star wars nonsense with force points. Hoarding is just too much of an issue. Unless I'm thinking of the wrong kind of hero points?
They're from the APG and they max out at 3. The 3 "big uses" are "reroll", "take an extra action", or "spend 2 to avoid dying".
So so far they've been relatively ineffective. There was one "save from death" and one "take an extra action", both of which kept PCs alive (which in this AP is a Good Thing). So I'm thinking of increasing the max to 5.
But nothing broken yet.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's funny, D&D history is full of all kinds of caster themes, from those who get their spells from gods to those who are basically fantasy scientists. But the psionist is the only caster that fills the theme of "I get my magic from extreme practice and discipline."
Yuuuusssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
I heart them sssssssooooooo mucccchhhh
I’m curious, what role do you see psionists filling in the game world? I ask because while I’ve never had a problem with psionics, I largely see it as a means of introducing non-vancian spells to the game.
Last night I was trying to visualize them in the game world, and I imagined them being mystic-types who train on mountaintop monasteries like Li Mu Bai from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or any remote locale where there are no distractions from the discipline of self-awareness. Except instead of becoming crazy kung fu sword-warrior badasses, they become crazy magical badasses who can summon fireballs with a wink.
Was going to go into this, but I'm outta time, so I'm not!
... for now! But reposting it so I can find it easily later!
Short version: it's the same thing that you see it as, except for adding the whole "mutant power" angle to it.
In terms of theming, though, they're very different.
They were, at least in D&D, some combination of martial arts monks (including some influence on clothing), but stylized in the extremely urban "punk" motifs (with tattoos and piercings), a "new age" blend of internal thought and some few motifs (see: crystals, also clothing), and Lovecraftian elements (see most other things).
As much as I love it, I still have an extremely unfortunate lack of physical Dreamscarred merch (meaning that, for me at least, I pay less attention to the art), but, upon glancing through again, it seems the "urban punk" aesthetic is replaced by more of a "high fantasy" aesthetic (heavily informed by, but distinct from, Paizo's Pathfinder aesthetic).
While the original focused on dark and grim conceits with background emphasizing decay and collapse, the Dreamscarred stuff is actually bright and clean - even the dark pictures show exalted-like* heroes, and this makes a huge difference in things.
While imagery doesn't make the world, it can inform what the authors and designers were thinking, to some extent.
The 3.5 versions were, in effect, outcast urban-/mana-punk 'lonesome' shamans, who haunted solitary places in order to find their own inner path to enlightenment, and maybe follow strange psychic calls and weird (or wyrd) realities to find others of their ilk and congregate for great psychic** power. Maybe they take on some apprentice or another who happens to have the bizarre mutation that allows them to exist. The world is crap, and bad things happen to good people, but that inner light - that genetic quirk that makes you "other" - might just save you from the madness. In rare situations, there will be secluded monasteries or whole institutions devoted to churning out these creatures - inevitably either "those few holding back the edge of madness" or "those monsters stealing our minds out from among us."
The DSP, on the other hand, shows a world where there may, well, be monasteries, schools, even knightly orders and royal academies of the same. These psionic individuals are part of the kingdom or nation or whatever. These are not outcasts - hated for being weird and bizarre - these are the keepers of the kingdom, those shining paragons who keep the darkness at bay with upright postures and loyalty to the <proper authority> (even if it is only themselves, depending on alignment). There are certainly places of seclusion, but those places are either sanctioned - by their own choice, if not actual governments - or weirdos to their own kind. And, to be clear, "their own kind" is just as common as anyone else.
In this case, they become respected communities and honor among the people in general.
All that said: they actually are, you know, exactly those people who disappear into a monastery and come back martial powerhouses - at least some of them. The psychic warriors and soulknives are, and, if you go with the full DSP stuff, aegis, marksman, and tactician are all martial masters.
The more "pure" psionic creatures like psions require both extreme self-discipline (something I'm sadly lacking) as well a "spark" - an innate talent that can't be taught. That is what separates them from, say, wizards, who are simply trained into their magic. But I'm certain enough about DSP feats to say that for sure, though it was clearly that way in 3.X.
Anyway, lots of rambling. Does that help?
*
**
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And a final bit of silliness: We're playing a PRD-only campaign and I'll soon need to choose a 7th-level spell for my life oracle. I'm looking at either:
Holy Word: Wonderfully powerful, but considering it's a pirate-themed game so she's the only good-aligned character in the party, she'd have to run off into the boonies to avoid harming her party and slaughtering her crew. Funny, but less-than-ideal
Jolting Portent: Take that, enemy casters!
Anyone have any others they'd recommend? Otherwise I'm kind of stuck. Role-playing wise, Holy Word is far more amusing: "I have an incredibly-powerful spell, but I can never use it!"
Effectiveness-wise, Jolting Portent is likely to occasionally hamper enemy casters, but is hardly worth a 7th-level spell slot.I do like Waves of Ecstasy because it fits in with her character concept rather well, but I'm not sure how effective it would be at our level.
1) bestow grace of the champion: instantly become a paladin without having to do all that pesky paladin-ing
2) control weather: holy carp PIRATE GAME; USE THIS
3) particulate form: free fast healing plus immunity to several annoying things for several people
4) regenerate: arg, matey, no hooks for you!
5) waves of ecstasy: it both stuns and staggers - there's a reason stagger is considered one of the most versatile and powerful effects in the game (and it's because nothing is immune to it)
6) a permanently meta-magic'd version of some other spell
-6b) instead of that, maybe a lower level spell with a cost associated that takes a higher spell slot for a reduction in that cost
7) "research your own" to see if your GM will let you gain a higher level variant of a spell on another list (most especially: baleful polymorph)
8) resurrection: I mean... come on; you keep adding to the obituaries, there...
9) greater restoration: with the way you're handing out, "hey come back to life" like candy, you gotta be dealing with problems...
10) if you can get it, any of the better versions of reincarnate (especially cyclic-, as it's pretty much the beeeeesssssssst)
11) but seriously, bestow grace of the champion
Also, does anyone understand the why behind the "20%" figure in 20% cooler? Does that symbolize or indicate anything other than, you know, a random amount of % increase in "cool" or whatever? What I'm asking is, "Does this song have any meaning other than an unclear connection between what seems to be an arbitrary number increase and actions taken by those indicated within? In other words, 'What makes it 20%?'"
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks~!
I've never even read the chapter on hero points.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
1) bestow grace of the champion: instantly become a paladin without having to do all that pesky paladin-ing
Er... Target = Lawful Good creature touched.
Not a single one in our entire campaign, so a non-starter.
2) control weather: holy carp PIRATE GAME; USE THIS
That's another one I was pondering, but we would need it so rarely it would fall into the, "Buy a scroll instead" category.
3) particulate form: free fast healing plus immunity to several annoying things for several people
4) regenerate: arg, matey, no hooks for you!
Got a scroll. It's another, "I'll cast this under 10 times in the entire campaign, so why spend a slot on it," spell.
5) waves of ecstasy: it both stuns and staggers - there's a reason stagger is considered one of the most versatile and powerful effects in the game (and it's because nothing is immune to it)
Yeah, it's where I'm leaning, and the GM agreed it's the most Del-like to boot.
6) a permanently meta-magic'd version of some other spell
-6b) instead of that, maybe a lower level spell with a cost associated that takes a higher spell slot for a reduction in that cost7) "research your own" to see if your GM will let you gain a higher level variant of a spell on another list (most especially: baleful polymorph)
8) resurrection: I mean... come on; you keep adding to the...
This one's free as a life oracle, so I already get it.
9) greater restoration: with the way you're handing out, "hey come back to life" like candy, you gotta be dealing with problems...
10) if you can get it, any of the better versions of reincarnate (especially cyclic-, as it's pretty much the beeeeesssssssst)
11) but seriously, bestow grace of the champion
As mentioned, we would have NO applicable targets.
So it looks like another vote for Waves of Ecstasy! Look out, pirates! You're going to... er... ewwwwww....
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
PRD:
(But I know what that means, so... fair!)
Hm. I'd missed that line in bestow' - good to know!
I'm surprised particulate form isn't in the PRD. Oh well!
But man, I'd use control weather every daggum day.
"What a nice day." "I CREATE A WIND FOR OUR SAILS"
"What a rainy day." "I CREATE A WIND FOR OUR SAILS"
"What a p-" "I CREATE A WIND FOR OUR SAILS"
"... what a-" "I CREATE A WIND FOR OUR SAILS"
"Look, the wind is already going the way we want for the best possible outcome of every conceivable manner! No more." "... ... ... ... I DESTROY THE WIND. THEN I CREATE A WIND FOR OUR SAILS"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Why the pillow fort is always cluttered.
Too much stuff.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
PRD:
(But I know what that means, so... fair!)
...
Well, it's all born of a dearth of GMs. We have 15 involved players, with another 2-3 waiting in the wings, and only ONE GM who will run more than one game at once (me), so using the APs is pretty much the only way to manage that huge of a crowd.
And let's be blunt: The encounters in the APs aren't written for experienced optimizing players; they're written for casual players who would rather build something for flavor rather than the, "I can one-round anything in the Bestiary" optimizations you see on the advice boards.
Add to that the whole, "If you're using anything non-core, you must have a printout so the GM can look it over," "I need what now? Nah; the GM can look it up at the table if it ever comes up," and we've just all agreed to not go outside of anything in the PRD, since it's easy enough for the GM to have the PRD up during the game, and you don't get many of the AP-breaking spells that way. (Greater Angelic Aspect as a 4th-level paladin spell, anyone?)
Add many, many frustrating experiences from GMs who've allowed relatively innocuous-sounding spells (Windy Escape or Emergency Force Sphere) that end up totally changing encounters, and you just learn to say, "No."
And there are PRD spells we just pretend don't exist, such as most of the Litanies. We just need things dialed back so we can run unmodified APs so we don't kill the GMs forcing them to modify encounters to make them even interesting.
EDIT: And I had to rewrite a lot of the Rise of the Runelords plot just because the bard took Blood Biography. There's a lot of work on the fly to make the APs work with an ever-expanding spell list.
EDIT 2: Yeah, it's sad. In our Skull & Shackles game the ranger is pretty highly-optimized. So we intentionally play really stupid to try to compensate for it. Hence his frequent appearances in the S&S obits. Jumping off a cliff, totally unprepared, only to land in the middle of the boss fight? Definitely adds excitement when you're the party healer...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Can any of you tekky tekky tek heads explain to me why when I use my chrome search bar it's currently opening the results in Yahoo?
I'm finding it deeply annoying.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Can any of you tekky tekky tek heads explain to me why when I use my chrome search bar it's currently opening the results in Yahoo?
I'm finding it deeply annoying.
I suspect you recently updated Java.
Oracle, in its unbelievably-annoying "wisdom", bundles the Yahoo! toolbar with its Java updates, so if you're not careful about what checkboxes are selected, you have a whole bunch of Yahoo! nastiness infecting your computer.
Check your search engine settings on the Chrome configuration page (those three little dots at the upper right, then select Settings.
Unfortunately, more than likely you'll have to go to the Windows control panel and uninstall whatever Yahoo! crap got installed by the Oracle Java installer.
Me? Bitter about Oracle Java? NEVER...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We have our first frost warning set for tonight.
Looks like I get to tarp the last pumpkin and string of gourds that are still growing.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
We have the national radar as our homepage, or whatever.
Hrm.
Keep getting signed out a bunch today for some reason.
... and several favorites I've made today have just made the little "+" thing become invisible.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I clicked the tree dotty boys, it said google was already was already the default, so I changed it to yahoo and then changed it back.
This did nothing.
So I deleted every option other than google from the search engine options.
This did nothing.
Somehow.
I don't remember downloading/updating java, but maybe my computer sneaked it in >.>
A small yellow bell on a white box has appeared along my bottom task bar thingy. I find the yellow bell vary suspicious >.>
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Why NobodysHouse is Always Cluttered
NobodysHome: OK, guys! We're going to try again! This time we're going to go through all the stuffies and figure out which ones to keep, which ones to give away, and which ones to throw away, OK?
NobodysFamily: Sounds good, NobodysHome!
NH: OK, all set! Try to go through this pile this week, OK?
NF: No problem, NobodysHome!
NH: Well, THAT was a failure. OK. Let's try this. Every day I'll put 5 stuffies on the dining room table, and you guys can sort those 5, OK?
NF: No problem, NobodysHome!
NH: Where did the 5 stuffies on the dining room table go?
Impus Major: I was clearing the table for the game, so I put them back in the pile for you!
NF: We did it! You can throw out these two!
NH: Where are the other three?
NF: We put them back in the pile for you!
Throw away things? I am not sure if I understand what do you mean by that...
Man, I need super slow era. Also, I can't read the post that I'm writing. I know I'm writing it, but I can't actually see any words, outside of what autocorrect keeps trying to suggest. I have no idea how this post looks.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I clicked the tree dotty boys, it said google was already was already the default, so I changed it to yahoo and then changed it back.
This did nothing.
So I deleted every option other than google from the search engine options.
This did nothing.
Somehow.I don't remember downloading/updating java, but maybe my computer sneaked it in >.>
A small yellow bell on a white box has appeared along my bottom task bar thingy. I find the yellow bell vary suspicious >.>
Three Dots > More Tools > Extensions
Exterminate all things Yahoo with great prejudice.
Or, if you're me, exterminate all things with great prejudice.
Good luck!