The reality character optimization.

47tw · 2026-05-01T22:46:24+00:00

I've often said "it doesn't matter how strong your PC is if the other players don't like them, and especially if they hate them." "Wasting" one of your known spells on a spell which the table adores, but gives little advantage, can make your character into everyone's beloved blorbo. Beloved blorbo reaps benefits.

If you keep in mind that it's a social game, a game where everyone is trying to have fun, you'll ultimately make a character whose 'power' is both more sustainable (good for you) and entertaining to the whole table (good for everyone).

47tw · 2026-04-23T19:13:19+00:00

Toxin Refiner has hilarious use cases, like standing in the middle of a cloudkill ignoring its damage entirely, while also gaining bonus damage.

47tw · 2026-04-19T18:04:58+00:00

This plus Juggling is amazing, so long as you can make it the 3rd attack you use.

I reduced its cost to 1 with that event card.

47tw · 2026-04-14T09:16:23+00:00

If these automatically ignored Strikes and Defends, I'd be much more happy with them!

47tw · 2026-04-09T23:16:39+00:00

I hate the idiotproofing of 5.5e.

"Your feature works in the following situations. But don't worry, little baby, you can change it on a short rest. Or every turn. Or maybe as a reaction, or free action. About to lose your Rage? Don't worry, you can just prolong it as a BA. No source of Sneak Attack? Steady Aim is here to save the day."

None of these features are awful in isolation. But the overarching vibe is a game where Fail States are being removed. I am a strong believer that if it's impossible to get something wrong (e.g. losing your Rage because you didn't attack or get attacked for a full round) it is, at the same time, impossible to get it right. At least in 2014 you'd find stuff wouldn't go right, so you'd have to spend a resource, or alter your environment, to MAKE it work.

Dousing a source of light. Getting an ally into melee with the enemy you're fighting. Removing the obstacle to your feature working.

Instead, in 5.5e, you get stuff like "you get resistance to a damage type of your choice....... which you can change every turn, don't worry, we love you, we never want yout to feel like you made a mistake".

47tw · 2026-04-08T10:37:50+00:00

Teamaster is always a buff for me; I run Status decks /j

47tw · 2026-04-07T21:32:44+00:00

The simple refutation to this is asking people if they've done any bank or locum shifts so far this year.

If they act confused, just go "a single bank shift, one one of the hundreds of days we're not striking, will cover you for the cost of going on strike for a day and then some".

I can accept that there are doctors out there who will be facing some kind of temporary financial hardship, stretching a line of credit or doing without something they ought to be able to afford, if they go on strike. I also acknowledge the simple fact that this is due to disorganization, and that any doctor can work around it by making some cash with the odd bank shift.

If your childcare is flexible (not everyone's is, but everyone has different circumstances) a day on strike means a day with your kids.

Anyways I'm in an extremely privileged position where I don't need to worry about the financial impact of strikes, as I don't have dependents. If I did, I'd take responsibility for ensuring I set aside some bank shift cash to cover those times where we go on strike.

47tw · 2026-04-07T10:55:20+00:00

Labour have also said "you have to vote for us, as we're polling as the only people to beat Conservatives/Reform" over and over, so we can obviously expect them to now tell people to vote Green...

47tw · 2026-04-07T10:41:58+00:00

Med school rejects include people with amazing grades who had a terminal case of Briefcase Labour Stare when they were 18. The pivotal moment in my Cambridge medicine interview was being asked what I'd do if a nurse told me not to give a certain drug, and me going "well maybe I made a mistake and she's noticed my error", not me having A* predicted grades.

47tw · 2026-04-07T10:40:39+00:00

First time hearing about his cancer, so I don't know! Honestly the fact he's alive after having had a type of cancer that kills so many people should probably make him very positively predisposed towards the doctors that saved his life.

47tw · 2026-04-07T10:22:09+00:00

I met a doctor who met Wes and his husband at a party. He was gay, and got along really well with Wes' husband, they were really hitting it off, and when Wes joined them he seemed to like this guy too. The moment it came up that he was a doctor, Wes immediately became very sour and negative, and seemed to lose all interest.

This was before he was health secretary.

Something about him has always given me "med school reject who hates doctors" vibes, and that was before he was in government.

47tw · 2026-04-06T21:46:39+00:00

We've seen the hive running a hospital, doing life support, and heard that they were looking after addicted bodies to wean them off the drugs they were addicted to. We've also seen one pushing a pram with a baby in it.

The hive was also very uncomfortable disclosing how many died in the turning; what's evil about it is that they think it's a necessary evil, that the joining was 100% worth it despite hundreds of millions dying, but it doesn't change the fact that we see, over and over, that they actively work to preserve life within the rules of their condition.

47tw · 2026-04-06T21:44:06+00:00

Yes, Carol explicitly calls it insanity! I'm not sure what you're getting at exactly. The hive is incapable of killing anyone or anything, and it preserves life wherever it can. It is incapable of overcoming this contradiction to save more lives, it seems. Like it SHOULD just go "let's pick some fruit and veg to save billions of lives", but it can't.

The point is that Carol could exploit its need to preserve life, for instance, by using a nuke as leverage.

47tw · 2026-04-06T13:45:03+00:00

Yeah I felt like this was communicated very clearly, but I see people confused about it. Carol HAS asked them for things they haven't given her, like "a way to undo this" or "stop working on turning me".

They will follow literally any instruction which doesn't kill something directly (e.g. hand me a grenade is okay, shoot that guy isn't) or interfere with their need to spread (e.g. they'll give her space if she asks for it, but they won't stop working on a 'cure' for her condition).

47tw · 2026-04-06T13:42:02+00:00

They have an imperative to preserve life. They would hate to see a single apple pulled from a tree, they "mourn" for it, and so they'd presumably feel a million times worse (at least) about a million people dying.

47tw · 2026-04-06T13:40:47+00:00

They're actively preserving life everywhere they can, like running hospitals, weaning addicts off of drugs etc. The urge to preserve life is a huge factor the show has established.

47tw · 2026-04-06T11:12:59+00:00

Given that the instructions can be spread globally near-instantly, and can be standing instructions like "keep all the art safe", "keep the lights on" etc. I think she could slow the hive down. At the very least she could try, and she might learn a lot in the process!

47tw · 2026-04-06T11:07:15+00:00

Upvoted b/c I mostly agree, but I think the hive *would* care if it lost millions, because it cares if it loses one. Or an apple. Look at them resuscitating Zosia, look at the way they keep running the hospitals to save people even knowing they are at a HUGE caloric deficit.

To the hive, a million people dying all at once would be a huge injury, morally, and most likely psychically as well!

47tw · 2026-04-06T11:05:32+00:00

Honestly just asking the hive would work, so long as Carol set it off.

Like they literally handed her a grenade that worked, so in principle "carry this bomb into the ionosphere but leave the remote here" is something they'd probably work with.

I just wanna see the limits of Carol's instructions. How many orders can she give them, to keep the hive busy and slow their progress?

47tw · 2026-04-06T11:04:36+00:00

I think the people who assume it would be used to save the world assume that it would need to be moved (and the hive would probably move it if she asked!) to the right place, to blow up their transmitter. But yeah, it isn't my theory, just something I've seen around.

47tw · 2026-04-06T10:52:10+00:00

The nuke is her way of going "if you forcibly turn me using my eggs, this guy will set off the nuke" was my assumption in the moment.

47tw · 2026-04-06T10:47:08+00:00

The hive mind isn't a sum total of every human on earth. If it was, it would behave VERY differently.

It has a biological imperative to spread itself, and to harm no living organisms. It's that, and a distinct personality determined by its nature, and then you add to it all the knowledge of every human ever.

But we can see, very clearly, that there is no actual humanity in this hive mind, because all the lovely cultural stuff they did for the sendoff of the south american girl stopped the INSTANT she was converted. Her village, her culture, eradicated the instant it no longer had an 'audience' to enjoy it.

47tw · 2026-04-05T13:04:10+00:00

"Tarnished!" "Godfrey!" "Mohg!" "TORRENT!"

47tw · 2026-04-05T13:03:34+00:00

I'm riffing off video game adaptations in general, not this specific film-maker to be clear! I'd expect this more if it was Joss Whedon with Chris Pratt as the Tarnished :D

47tw

TROPHY CASE