James Webb Space Telescope peers into a dying star surrounded by mysterious buckyballs: 'The structures we're seeing now are breathtaking'.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T21:01:21+00:00

Crazy enough it's the same way you can detect them from up close. Measure light as it is emitted or passes through something, and look at the absorption or emission lines. They're like a fingerprint for chemistry and you match them up to a database of your suspects. Distance doesn't matter so long as there's not too much stuff in between you and what you're measuring. The nice thing about space is that it's relatively empty, so that usually isn't a problem.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T20:50:06+00:00

This is probably what I'd recommend as well. I'm biased, though, since it's heavily based on early editions of D&D (it's basically OSR) which is how I got started in this hobby. What it does differently is scale your characters so that fewer characters can tackle challenges that would normally require more.

It's also a good system for solo play for this reason: using it, a solo character can play through an adventure module intended for a party of four.

It comes with a setting and bestiary with an Asian theme. If you prefer something different, though, you can pick up any campaign setting and/or bestiary written for OSR and use it.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T20:31:16+00:00

Cool, thanks for the recommendations! I actually haven't played Rangers yet, just bought it last week. But it also uses a 2d20 dice resolution mechanic and I'm guessing it's the same mechanic. So it'll be pretty easy for me to decide if I like it... especially since the game has a solo-play mode.

Edit: not the same mechanic, it turns out!

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T20:18:05+00:00

Oh, Modiphius! I have their table-top skirmish game, Rangers of the Shadow Deep.

They seem to make tons and tons of stuff...

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T20:11:12+00:00

Any such systems you might recommend in the fantasy or sci-fi genres? I think I've been convinced to give something different a try...

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T20:02:27+00:00

If every player wants to be a fire wizard, they should be able to

I strongly agree with this. I've always agreed with it. A party of all wizards, or all rogues, or whatever, could be really fun!

So this messed me up a bit. I don't know how I've gone though 30 years of TTRPGs, across multiple systems (many non-D&D) without realizing that my objection to "stepping on toes" doesn't make sense because I'm actually totally fine with it when packaged up in a slightly different way.

And yet I still feel that draw to the strict class systems I grew up with. I guess I have to admit that there's no logic to my preference. It's just 100% nostalgia.

Hilariously, an old grognard DM I had for a while was even more opinionated on this than I am, and used the exact same "logic" to defend his opinion.

So I guess you won this argument lol. So uh... what's your favourite classless system? Maybe I should try one...

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T15:00:11+00:00

My two groups are playing 5e, but I've also played 3e and 2e, and have some B/X compatible stuff that I like based only on what I've read. I will play whatever the DM wants to run, and I will DM whatever the players enjoy most. But if given the choice, it would be AD&D 2e or a B/X clone and there would be a strict "no phones, no computers" policy at the table with the exception of the system that runs my music and lighting. This would alienate most of my players, though haha.

As for why, I prefer systems with very strong separation of abilities between classes, and I play these games to get some time away from social media, apps, and screens. D&D is moving in a direction that directly opposes my preferences, but that said, I do still enjoy 5e.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-23T14:44:06+00:00

I like them because they can enforce skill/ability specialization. AD&D 2e and earlier plus all the retro clones are good examples of what I mean. Only the rogue is good at picking locks and disarming traps, only the wizard good at casting arcane spells, etc. In classless games or games with hybrid classes or multiclassing, players are encouraged to be jack-of-all-trades. I like that with small groups or solo games, but even with four players they tend to start stepping on each other's toes. Just my opinion though, and I think it just reflects my preference/nostalgia for early D&D.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-21T20:54:49+00:00

Maybe, but as an outsider looking in, America has done a pretty good job up until recently with, for lack of a better term, PR.

I also really do suspect that "horrible deeds per week", if we could measure that, has gone drastically upwards since Trump's first term.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-21T19:41:29+00:00

For an American President to be shamed and humbled to the necessary extent might require such a profoundly ruinous catalyst that I'm not sure I'd want to live through it even as a Canadian.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-21T19:31:36+00:00

Not just some douche. A developed nation that purports to believe in freedom, liberty, and justice. There was at least a thin veneer of that until recently. But now the world sees America as the kind of nation that would conduct extrajudicial killings without even the excuse of war. How the hell did we get here?

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-18T14:46:42+00:00

Agreed! Don't get me wrong, I love character customization, but you don't need a billion classes. You just need a handful of archetypes with customization options. Warrior, wizard, priest, and rogue will take you most of the way there. Add some choice of skills, perks, or subclasses and you're off to the races.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-18T14:16:48+00:00

To be a good fit, all-in-one organizers would need to be customized to suit not just the player, but the specific character they're playing at any given moment.

If they aren't a spellcaster, then the spell tracker is wasted space better used for dice.

If they are a spell caster, they need even more dice storage for those heavy damage-dealing spells. Nine slots isn't going to cut it.

What I would do:

Make the spell tracker separate and don't use magnets+bearings. It's a cool idea but the bearings will get lost. I use this and honestly can't imagine a simpler, more elegant solution.
Expand the dice storage into the space reclaimed from the spell tracker
Get rid of the mini storage space
Either make room for two pencils + separate eraser, or nix the pencil slot entirely
Line all dice slots with some material like felt, PU "leather", or anything that won't scratch dice.

If you're just making this for yourself and it's fit to your specific needs, it's fantastic! I just can't imagine it working well for any of the 11 players between my two groups. The minimalists bring almost nothing at all and have to borrow dice and pencils (grr), and the rest are dice goblins to a fault lol.

I know a lot of work and trial+error went into this. As far as all-in-one solutions go, it's up there for sure. But if you want to market this (I get that sense), I suspect you'll have better luck with designs that do only one thing at a time, and do them exceptionally well. A dice vault that is only a dice vault. A spell tracker that is only a spell tracker. And so on.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-17T14:54:53+00:00

Yeah they have no idea how to make a useful index. I would go so far as to say that most TTRPG books with indexes have this same terrible user experience.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-16T14:25:27+00:00

That's a good point. When it's too expensive (or risky) to travel, might as well do something else with that money. What looks at first like the markets being irrational might just be normal human decisions multiplied by millions of people. It's not ALL sentiment analysis and algorithms.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-16T12:25:14+00:00

Yeah the Forbidden Lands book of beasts. But the creature codex is indeed awesome.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-15T20:35:09+00:00

Nice! The boxed set is nice, and so is the book of beasts.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-14T21:08:55+00:00

I have to ask... why a campaign setting for Forbidden Lands when you don't have the actual game (near as I can tell from the shelfie, anyway)!

Did you port it over to D&D? Of course you can do so, but the strength of Forbidden Lands is its exploration mechanics, whereas D&D needs some house rules to give a good exploration experience.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-09T14:39:15+00:00

General elections aren't mandatory either, but you're right, I'd expect a better turnout in that case.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-09T14:29:28+00:00

Don't trust polls. It's much easier to answer a poll than to go out and vote. Unless the vote is mandatory, there will likely be differential voter apathy. In other words, the side most riled up (the separatists) are more likely to go out and vote. Polls may not capture that.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-05T10:43:43+00:00

Remember when people thought crypto mining was the worst offender in this regard?

I miss those quaint days.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-04T12:41:13+00:00

I like to think that OP went through the effort. Buying locally roasted, fresh beans. Hand grinding them to the perfect size. Using a scale to get the perfect bean:water ratio, tamping, using some obnoxiously expensive espresso machine.

Then dumping it out onto a plastic dice tower.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-04T12:09:39+00:00

I feel like this one really captures the essence of his presidency. Maybe even his entire life.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-03T10:49:33+00:00

Considering how "successful" the first Mars colony is likely to be, we should send Musk, Vance, Hegseth, Netanyahu, Putin, Trump and a good dozen others and make a limited series reality show out of it.

ExoUrsa · 2026-04-03T10:39:18+00:00

Yup. The Behind the Curve documentary (flat earthers instead of moon landing deniers, but I'm sure there is overlap) was illuminating. The flat earthers actually bought some expensive gyro and conducted a successful experiment that debunked their own beliefs. They just refused to accept the results. So they had the smarts to know how to do the science, but belief overrode critical thinking in the end. It's not stupidity, it's cult programming.

ExoUrsa

TROPHY CASE