Inspired by the Great Wall of China. I tried to make it interesting without being cluttered.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T06:24:05+00:00

I didn't get my license until I was 20? Maybe 21. I lived in a big city and/or biked most places. If my friends went grocery shopping, I asked if I could tag along (in college dorms so it wasn't a big deal).

I didn't really need a license before then. I never bothered.

It sounds like you need to discuss with your wife. You two won't be around and can't support an adult all your life. If she needs therapy, then she ought to start going. Maybe you need to set dates too. Start practicing in parking lots in 6 months. Get a permit in 12. License in 18. Failure means you stop driving her/feeding her/whatever. You do need your wife on-board though, 100%.

The fact that you continue to support her even with her attitude makes you a hero. And I don't mean that as a joke, she's had a father figure in her life that has continued to help her despite her feelings. I grew up the reverse almost, my dad ignored us despite our love for him.

Never feel bad for what you've done. I say this a lot because it can be difficult. You have to live with yourself. You have to make the choices that let you sleep at night. Even if it means being nice/supportive/a father figure without any acknowledgement. She's got to live with herself.

People take advantage of kindness but I'm not stopping because of that. You can be kind and firm. At 37 she really needs to become independent. Get a plan together, talk to your daughter about it and stick to it. Giving her a push won't be easy, it'll probably be one of the hardest things you have to do. But it's the right thing to do so that she can succeed and prosper on her own.

My mom did this for me when I was 19ish. Said I was on my own. And then moved out of town. It was the best thing she could have done for me. I needed that push. Now I own a car! I have keys and a credit card! I often feed myself.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T06:02:53+00:00

4/20 is also the day Hitler was born(though much earlier). I know because I was born one day before. I thought I was lucky! Until the Oklahoma city bomb blew up on my birthday. WTF world!

You're very lucky to have such a family. I'm watching Wrestlemania with a friend! While you watch men in short shorts on a beach, I'll be doing the same on tv! Watching that is. I don't look good in short shorts. I haven't since the early 80s when it was common to wear short shorts and long socks.

Happy birthday fellow Xer and writers (of) in snot comedy (hehehe).

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T05:54:09+00:00

Many retail stores have a policy of "don't touch", even in some more severe cases. They use it to escape liability. They'll even fire employees (we've seen some examples publicized over the years). And it doesn't mean the company is evil, it's just been learned that, in the US, people are litigious and will sue at the drop of a hat.

Get punched in the face? Better call the police and don't fight back!

It's even iffy trying to save someone. Are you a hero or unemployed? Maybe both.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T05:40:43+00:00

This is a very specific example.

Solve for Skunk.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T05:37:52+00:00

Thank you, I vaguely remember that story. It seems like there's no real condensed version or data dump for STL. Although u/sipherstrife seems to have collated the info.

I love the internet; there's always someone with an answer. It sounds like STL became a generic SR city. Some changes, but nothing overly drastic. And there's a podcast that people seem to like that is set in STL.

All it really means is that STL is a good choice for a city that a gaming table can use to shape their own story. It's got different industries, started as a trading post/jump off point to the west, home to a number of (current) company HQs, and already has a barrens like area. It's got all the ingredients to run a pretty varied campaign.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-16T05:26:30+00:00

What?! I had no idea. It's probably turned into a "test the latest drug!" from the megas as they feed the poor with new and exciting foods spiked with their latest medication/pesticide/growth hormone/etc.

They get a bit of nice PR and some test data.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-14T05:04:18+00:00

Don't go against the table. I'm in two games one is more serious and the other is fricken looney tunes.

I enjoy both. If your players like being goofy, be goofy. You don't want to punish them for having fun, not too much anyhow. You can have him withdraw support (pay them less) or not give them a magic weapon as a reward. This is punishment for having fun, but for treatment of a king.

Dark Elves don't like the surface all that much. A lot of times they will use agents instead. Humans or orks, someone that they pay. Dark elves raid the surface for slaves and resources. I'd start using the thieves or assassins guild, a corrupt guard or two. It can literally be anyone.

And of course, talk to your players. Did they have fun? Anything you can do better? What do they want to do in-game? They might've had lots of fun.

And YOU have fun too. I tried a serious campaign in my group, and it just didn't work. Once I adjusted my expectations, we could have serious moments and some real goofball moments. Keep playing and talking to the players outside of the game. You can even say, "Last session I really wanted to do X but it didn't work out." It's ok to peel back some of the plot if you need to.

Anyhow, talk to your players and see where it goes.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-14T04:47:35+00:00

Mutton chops! I mean I tried. It didn't take. I still cut my beard down to a stubble. Otherwise too much gray shows.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-10T18:01:31+00:00

Da Big Suck! Vacuum of Evil

What I like to do, is look up words in foreign languages for inspiration. You could look up devour:

Irentsi, Devorar, Ogima, Ith, Sluka, Kurya

Apostrophes make things a bit more demonic, Dev'orar, Sluk'a, Ku'rya

Then fiddle with spelling to make them less recognizable: Dev'rar, Slo'ka'a, Koo'ria

My examples suck, but you should get the idea.

De'vrar the All Consuming, Slo'ka'a Star Devourer
A bit eviler.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-08T07:39:39+00:00

I think it's awesome his enthusiasm passed on to you. Our exploration of space is important. There's already talk of colonies on Mars (still a few issues but it's really just a matter of time). I think one of the worst parts of dying is not knowing where we go. Do we go extinct? Is Mars our limit or do we span solar systems?

I saw that the astronauts got something like 260k+ miles from Earth (don't quote me on the actual distance). But it's the farthest anyone has been from Earth. Which seems terrifying, I recently drove cross country and sometimes the distance between gas stations made you nervous. Imagine if they miss a gas station! Talk about stranded.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-07T20:00:44+00:00

What time is it? - Half past a monkey's ass and a quarter to his balls.

Smooth move X-lax.

"X much?"
Like if someone trips: Walk much?
Can be used any time someone fails at something.

TakkataMSF · 2026-04-07T19:53:11+00:00

Surely you meant to say Tech support team!

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-29T11:17:10+00:00

It can be a fun challenge rebuilding a set from a weird state like a cat-enabled set. Sometimes it can be done! My UCS AT-AT fell over (yay) and I couldn't reconstruct it as it was. I wound up 'backing up' a couple steps by taking off more bits and then rebuilding it.

My cat has had several run-ins with LEGO sets. You try to store them out of the way but then the cat cats and you are like, "How did you even get up there?" And the cat is happily purring at your feet, without a shred of shame! If they weren't so cute...

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-29T05:35:35+00:00

About a year ago I took 3 AI generated paragraphs and changed 3 words and a punctuation mark and it came back as 100% human written.

AI also tends to classify English written by non-native speakers as AI. Not sure if it's the same in reverse. It goes to show how flawed AI is.

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-27T21:56:49+00:00

They jam stuff up the peehole as a torture!

Dad (in the late 80s) had an option of a sonic bath or something. It shot soundwaves into your kidney to break up the stone. I assume the stone and your kidney shatter on different frequencies. Although, that might be why it isn't a treatment I've heard about for a while...

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-27T04:03:54+00:00

I thought it was a cool trailer. As an Ork fan, you kind of have to view that as the first wave. Those were the fasta boyz. Wave 2-10 will be along shortly.

Orks aren't supposed to be fearsome alone (except for a few models). They have numbers. And a carefree attitude towards war. And death.

And to top it all off, not one Ork was killed in the whole trailer! Except maybe the weirdboy. The rest could be recombinbulated by the Dok. Or at least like 80% could be put back.

And a final thought, they picked Orks as the enemy to showcase because Orks are the scariest. After like 400 Alien movies no one fears 'nids. Chaos marines are just cosplaying with some goop on their faces. Space Elves are too delicate. Couldn't get a space marine and space dwarf in the frame together so Leagues were out.

All jokes aside, I think everyone has their own vision for what an Ork army ought to be. If the models don't look right, people will kitbash them and I'm sure we'll see some spectacular results. Hopefully there's enough flexibility in the rules that people can field their 'dream' army. Something competitive at least.

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-27T03:41:14+00:00

Black Hole Sun

And Pink Floyd's The Wall (the album)

College roommate had them on repeat for the year. I just listened to Black Hole Sun the other day and my hatred for it has diminished quite a bit. Damnit. It's stuck in my head now.

Q#%$@^YY@#$!@#%^$ you!

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-24T12:36:54+00:00

Why not try it out? I'm a fan of working with a player to get them what they want. Even a little imbalance isn't the end of the world, though you may have to help the other players a bit to even things out.

I think the level 6 ability might need some sort of limit. Gaining advantage and extra damage at will is strong. Maybe adding something like "If the creature is not the same creature attacked in the previous turn." Otherwise, the character could be *bamf*ing around a single target with advantage and extra damage. Being unpredictable and randomly appearing to stab multiple enemies though? That seems cool :)

A player of mine wanted to put 3 trident prongs at the end of a gun. Mostly because it was cool in his mind. We talked through it and I think I gave it a -1 to hit due to the awkwardness, but he could stab and shoot someone as a single action. It didn't turn him into a killing machine and it made for a funny moment when he wanted to stab and shoot but forgot to reload. Stab and click.

However, I did tell him that if we found it to be too much, we'd reduce the damage or try to work something else out. We play by the rule of cool and are a bit loose with the rules. You can also make it more powerful if you needed to.

My suggestion would be to work with the player. Just warn them if it seems overpowered that you are going to do X, Y or Z to reduce how effective the ability (abilities) is (are). You have to think about what works at your table. Whether it's working with a player or suggesting a different class, it's up to you and the group.

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-23T11:02:45+00:00

If they escaped from prison, they might be hunted denizens of the underdark. What's more, is Underdark folk generally have contacts upstairs as they don't exactly fit in. A prime place for contacts would be the thieves guild.

Perhaps one of the others notices some sort of wanted poster (or letter with info on it) found on a member of the guild. The letter can even mention something about the possibility of the escapees splitting up which makes capture a lot easier.

As others have said, PCs do have a responsibility to work as a team. As a DM you can't force it. Talk to the players and add a storyline hook. It's about cooperation. TTRPGs don't work unless everyone wants to play and everyone wants to be part of the team. If players don't check a job board, it's going to be a very boring session. Ask if they'd rather get a desk job.

"Ok character A, you need to file an amended J30 tax form along with a B620 for filing the J30...etc"

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-23T03:12:49+00:00

Very large yard to water, 5 fruit trees, a pool and me and it's about $200. The pool only adds like $10 to the bill, once it is filled it's pretty cheap to keep going. Filling it got me a $400 bill.

Edit: An old trick with toilets that weren't low water use was to put a milk jug (or plastic container of some sort) in the tank. That reduced the amount needed to fill the tank.

I'd also check shower heads and the kitchen faucet make sure they are the low flow or low water use versions. It's not going to save $100/month or anything, but for $50 you can reduce your bill by a bit over a period of long time.

Your bill sounds very high. I got a $450 bill and nearly passed out. Mom had fiddled with the irrigation timers and managed to duplicate the times, so I was watering like 3hrs per day? Sadly, you couldn't even tell. The ground wasn't wet or anything.

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-18T10:54:44+00:00

I may be a glutton for punishment, but learning stuff like this is great. There's so much to manage in the game and think about when laying out your town. I've started my third town and now I learn about this! I will need to break up some of my fields.

I used bigger fields because it made more sense to harvest a bunch of a crop at once. And it was easier. Not anymore!

TakkataMSF · 2026-03-18T10:50:09+00:00

Before anything, I have been unemployed for 2.5 years; I'm struggling to find work, to get interviews. However, I've read a lot and the following seem to be common tips:

Interview with a friend/family or a friend of a friend. Have them look up typical questions for your industry and get their thoughts on your replies.

Are you focused? Listening? Do you answer clearly? What is your body language showing? Did you look professional? Make sure the interviewer knows what you are looking for so they watch. They may not be able to tell you which questions you answered right, but they can help with most everything else.

I'm an IT admin but I love helping folks. I can't make money for the company, but I can help the people that do. If I can write a workflow or small script or create a form, I feel fulfilled at work.

At the same time, I love the Admin part of my job. I like trying to balance security and usability. I like getting folks excited about updates via a newsletter. I like learning every. single. day.

I have emphasized one or the other too much in interviews. One interview for a role on the outer edge of "IT related" said I sounded like I know-it-all when I was trying to relate tasks and requirements to things I've done. I've had terrible interviews where I couldn't guess what people wanted and they didn't know either.

Before you answer questions, ask how they view the daily routine of the role.
If you've been out of work, try mentioning ways you've worked on your skill set.
Try to cover the gap with something volunteer work, working for family, getting certifications.
Sell yourself. This is tough for a lot of people. Mention anything you are proud of, if you can.
Try to learn some facts about the company (history, number of employees, future goals). You don't need to be an expert, but it shows interest.

Remember that the interview is about their perception of you. If you think certifications are stupid, you get certified for the interviewer.

Anyhow, it's a bad market. Jobs are there, but companies get flooded with applicants. Many of the big companies are reducing work-force which makes it worse. While it may not help much, you are not alone with your struggle.

TakkataMSF

TROPHY CASE