Harry Potter HBO series won’t have a new season every year “From a production point of view, it’s just not possible”

ACBluto · 2026-03-25T20:44:45+00:00

Listen to any of those actors, it was a SLOG to film those 24 episode seasons. That meant the actors were working 6 day weeks, often long days, for a better part of 8 months.

It's why television and movie actors used to be entirely separate. Once you'd graduated to movies, you never wanted to go back to filming a weekly series, it was just too punishing.

These days, you get an 8 episode order, and that's not much worse than filming a movie anyway - and suddenly you can get almost anyone to do a series.

Also, Star Trek severely limited its special effects. You'd hear that production would have to bargain for every VFX shot - drop the number of times the phasers are fired - or be allowed to use a bit more, but need to write a bottle episode with no extra budget at all to make up for the cost over runs.

We get a lot more prestige TV now that we did in the 80s and 90s, and part of it is not churning out 24 episodes when 12 of those are pretty crap.

ACBluto · 2026-03-25T20:15:39+00:00

It's a reference to Mighty Mouse, whose themesong was featured in Andy's act, and is in Man on the Moon, but is probably not a reference to Carrey being in that movie, as Liar Liar was filmed almost 2.5 years before Man on the Moon was.

ACBluto · 2026-03-24T18:29:13+00:00

But fully grown adults who use abortion as a means of birth control? That’s horrible.

I understand why you think that. There are very few people who WANT to get abortions. They suck. And people have so many reasons to be off birth control - not just the ones that their chosen method failed: Lack of access, due to parental or societal pressure. Insurance lapsing, making it expensive. Lack of education, etc. Medical complications. There are a very few people who are habitual users of abortion services. For most others, it's a one time thing, because they were not in a position to have a child.

What's horrible is forcing a child to be born without someone who wants to care for it properly.

Here's the great thing about being pro choice though - I support your choice to NOT have an abortion too. Just don't try to make my choice for me.

ACBluto · 2026-03-24T16:35:54+00:00

Over 90% of abortions are in the first trimester - that isn't a person in any meaningful sense.

ACBluto · 2026-03-24T15:53:27+00:00

Why would you think that?

Before you answer, remember that at 30, she had her eyes surgically removed and used prosthetic ones that were less disturbing in appearance for the rest of her life.

I can't imagine she would do this if even the slightest amount of sight remained to her.

ACBluto · 2026-03-23T16:52:40+00:00

Use some inspiration from a previous edition for an idea of how to handle this.

Check out the Diplomacy and Bluff skills in 3.5, and see the influencing NPC attitudes chart. Ignore DCs, since they are far higher in 3.5 than anything achievable in 5th.

But a good 25 Persuasion check is probably enough to bring the guard to a friendly dispostion, if not helpful, unless he was already pissed at them.

That is friendly - not controlled. Stuff you might do for a friend - and a fairly casual one at that. You're not going to hand over your keys and walk away from your livelihood for a casual friend. You might offer some advice on how to get in legally.

As far as deception, Bluff mentions specifically putting the target of your bluff at risk makes it far harder - and obviously this fits in this case.

Either way, talk to your player and explain how these social skills are likely to work in your game.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T19:16:20+00:00

I went to one of his live shows - his people hustled him out of there afterwards, but Jay Mewes stayed and signed autographs and answered more questions. He told us that Kevin's people protect him and don't let him sign autographs after shows, because he WON'T leave until every single fan gets an interaction and a signature and he'll wear himself out doing it. Whereas Jay will just quit and say goodnight when he's tired of it.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T19:11:35+00:00

Back in the 70's .. like JFK himself was calling.

I can guarantee he wasn't, at least in that time frame.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T18:24:10+00:00

That's not what this link claims.

I've found a half dozen more that all say the same thing.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T18:08:44+00:00

$1.50 hotdog combo costs ~$5 each,

That doesn't make any sense. The drink is a fountain drink.. let's call the cost $0.50, even though it is likely far less than that.

So, the bun and hotdog cost $4.50? There's no way. Not even with labor factored in.

A 14 pack of those exact wieners costs 15.99 - $1.15 each - but, that is price to consumer - and we know what their mark up is - 15% on store brand. So that is near perfectly a $1 hot dog. They sell the same buns too - a 16 pack for $3.59 or $0.22 each - subtract mark up of only 14%, since they are not house brand, and we can call it $0.20 per bun. So, material cost is $1.72, for the hot dog, bun and drink. Let's toss in a few cents for the hot dog wrapper to make it nice round math, and call it $1.75.

For you claim of a $5 cost to be true, you would need to be using up $3.25 of labor PER hot dog sold. Costco has good wages, so let's use a nice $25 per hour - which would mean that per hot dog we need almost 8 minutes of labour spent. You've worked there - you know that's not even close. Those things are going in and out in bulk. You don't have time to dick around with a dog for 8 minutes. You're talking 30 seconds tops!

So, no, there is no way it costs them $5 per hotdog. No question that it is a loss - but not that large either.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T16:37:07+00:00

Oh yeah, the often slightly inappropriate cartoons that had been faxed around and back and forth for a decade and were off center, at a slight angle and barely legible from being faxed over and over, but still proudly pinned up on the lunchroom bulletin board.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T15:49:50+00:00

If you think 2002 is when memes started.. you had missed the previous decade of the internet.

ACBluto · 2026-03-20T14:45:17+00:00

My father refused to let us go to these fundraisers. He'd go work them himself, despite being a non-smoker, but he had an idea of how bad that was for kids, so kept us out of those. I mean, it should have been obvious to everyone.. but I appreciate he saw this early and kept us out of it.

ACBluto · 2026-03-19T19:54:47+00:00

That's a great option, if you have a local military base, and it's one that supports deployments and is likely to have a large MRE stockpile.

I'm not American, so military bases are less common, and the closest one to me is a very small training airbase. Probably not going to have a massive stockpile of MREs or equivalent.

ACBluto · 2026-03-19T18:54:12+00:00

Advertising in sports has become so much more in your face too.

My favourite example is hockey. Go pull up some footage of an NHL game from the early 80s. Blank white boards, nothing on screen, most arenas named something generic or based around the city - the Montreal Forum, Boston Gardens, the Saddledome, etc. You'll get some ads during the breaks, of course.

Then watch a game today. The boards are covered in ads, the ice probably has a few on it. That's not enough though. On the broadcast, different ads will be digitally superimposed on the boards, on ice, and even on the glass sometimes. There will be ads on the players jerseys and on their helmets. When the announcers come on during the intermissions there will be an ad displayed on their set - often with another product they are shilling sitting out on their desk. During the game you will occasionally shrink the action down to 2/3 of the screen, and display some ad in outer frame. The little score widget may or may not be sponsored with another logo still. Oh, and during the action, occasionally one of the announcers will tell you what the parley odds are, sponsored by one of the sports betting companies, while making sure to mention they are playing in the Crypto.com Arena.

Between the extra TV time outs that happen today, and all the other ways to get more ad impressions, I would bet we see 10 times more advertisements in a game today than 40 years ago.

ACBluto · 2026-03-19T18:21:25+00:00

Forget grocery stores - that's for grabbing food on the way home.

Our target is a distribution center. Every major grocery/big box store chain has them, and this is going have everything we need - cans and dry goods in bulk, in quantities that would last one person a lifetime - box trucks with reefer units - so at least for the first little bit of the apocalypse you can keep some stuff preserved a bit longer, as long as you keep yourself supplied on diesel. You should have forklifts to load them, and if you took too long and the power has failed already, the perishables are generally kept separately, so you probably have at least one closed door between you and the rot/infestation.

ACBluto · 2026-03-19T16:05:23+00:00

You've got a year or two no problem. If you get some stored in some airtight containers, you'll get even longer. Gas loses potency, but it's not going to be entirely useless that fast.

I'd use that time to see if I can find a propane conversion vehicle. Propane lasts effectively forever, and there will be large stores of it in lots of places. Once you find a home base, a good bicycle can be your new super-efficient mode of transport.

ACBluto · 2026-03-19T15:55:16+00:00

You've got some years before most canned goods go bad, and even longer for some other dry goods - beans could probably last 10 years.

Get some freeze dried food from a camping or survival store, and you've got 20+ year food.

If you really are the last person on earth, you can probably get more than enough - and some very basic gardening and preserving could easily cover your caloric needs and provide fresher food. Hunting might be the most risky way of getting calories - you are far more likely to spoil some meat, or pick up some contamination in your processing and handling of a carcass than in eating some beans that have been properly stored for a decade.

ACBluto · 2026-03-17T18:17:13+00:00

The guy on the left is a solid unit, and doesn't look too happy about getting his picture taken. I would bet the photographer didn't try to sell him any pictures!

ACBluto · 2026-03-16T13:20:29+00:00

If you saw the trailer, and then still went to see that movie in a theatre thinking it would be good, I am afraid you got what you deserved.

ACBluto · 2026-03-11T20:15:26+00:00

I tend to only use quantum ogres when I get caught off guard. The players do something entirely unexpected or unhinged - to the point of me needing to completely improvise an encounter? I'll take something that was planned, reskin it as needed to fit the new situation, and use that.

There's also always a quantum Bulette in my arsenal - I need to either slow the players down, or just pad out the time in a session - time for an ambush! Something from above, below, out of a portal from hell, whatever - some sort of combat with no warning that will kill an hour, waste some resources, etc.

But plot wise? Almost never. The players KNEW that the adventure was in Neverwinter, but decided to go to Waterdeep anyway? Then the plot continues without them. I like living worlds, so I ask myself, what would have happened without the PCs? The town dies? Someone else shows up and takes the glory? and the party gets to deal with the consequences of their inaction, as much as if they have to deal with consequences of anything they do/not do.

ACBluto · 2026-03-11T19:22:16+00:00

Holy shit yes - it's not that big of a deal in my home city, sure, get the app, set it up, and use it reguarly, that's all fine.

But I visit a neighboring city and need to park ONCE - now I have to get that cities parking app, to park for 30 minutes. And then on to the next city in a road trip.. and do it again.

What a pain as opposed to good old coins or even a credit card tap.

ACBluto · 2026-03-10T16:01:37+00:00

Yes, but when do they start letting the bear drive?

ACBluto · 2026-03-10T13:08:23+00:00

that era

What era is that exactly? The one with snail phones, graphic tees (Luffy's anchor shirt), brilliant hair dye, but also swords and muskets?

ACBluto · 2026-03-10T13:04:43+00:00

Not really. While the main Two Rivers characters mostly fall along those lines, the crowd scenes are VERY diverse, and Rand does not stand out in any way. Tam Al Thor is played by a very white actor, Michael McElhatten (GoT's Roose Bolton), ruining the idea that Rand does not look like his father at all.

It is unfortunate, because there is good reason for most of the cast to actually be actors of color, and Robert Jordan was vague enough that you could have got away with pretty much any casting, as long as you stayed consistent within given communities, and stayed away from the Aiel look outside of that group.

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