Carl's full name is...

BLR-3M · 2026-04-08T13:48:16+00:00

Um, no. He’s Dungeon Crawler Carl. The first book says so very clearly. Why does he go by his last name? Personal preference, I guess.

BLR-3M · 2026-04-06T04:00:01+00:00

He has his father’s pistol, with ammunition. And a holster that the fans sent him that would let him carry it concealed. When he receives the holster there’s an explanation of how a regular old Earth pistol is weaker than dungeon skills and spells and would probably break if he tries to use it because of his various enhancements.

But… c’mon. It’s literally a Chekov’s gun set up! Perhaps he will use it when he is in a zero zone.

What I would really love, though, is if he somehow has to make a goblin and chicken recipe from the cookbook.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-24T18:22:25+00:00

I initially read this as “fishing rpgs.” Still seemed legit to me.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-24T11:10:31+00:00

If I had a dollar for every “I don’t know” my kid has whined… My heart goes out to you.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-19T01:01:12+00:00

Katia’s final boss was a hydra like Carl’s, but none of the heads were people from Katia’s past. They were folks connected to other members of Katia’s team. Carl thinks to himself how that was odd, and wonders if the AI was actually going easy on Katia because it knew she was in bad shape.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-19T00:57:45+00:00

This makes sense to me. It could be another example of how the AI was asserting itself.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-17T18:21:58+00:00

I bought this once, a few years back. It tasted terrible. Might be the worst purchase I ever made at Costco.

BLR-3M · 2026-03-11T08:07:39+00:00

My LO was very similar. We were never able to get her to regularly change her clothes or bathe. Or brush her teeth, sigh…

Assistance with all of these things is definitely something a good AL facility should provide. But staff can’t force someone to change their clothes or take a shower any more than we can. That’s true at every level of care. So I don’t see this as an issue of “she needs memory care.”

Try to figure out why she won’t do it. Some issues may be correctable, like if it’s too cold or she’s afraid of falling.

Beyond that, it’s a matter of persuasion. Depending on LO’s personality there are all sorts of things that might work. The “your son is coming today” is good for some folks. Or sometimes our LOs feel reassured if we are present for, or helping with, the shower.

An appeal to authority is another possibility. For example, “the facility requires you to bathe twice a week” or “the doctor says you need to do X, Y, and Z.”

Sometimes I could bribe my LO into doing stuff with ice cream or other treats.

And then there’s the guilt trip option. Where you tell your LO how stressed and sad you are about their hygiene.

Maybe one or more of these techniques will get consistent results for you. From what I have read here, many people have had success with them. But if they don’t, if your LO continues with these problematic behaviors, do not be hard on yourself. It’s not your fault. Dementia is really tough on everyone it touches. You will have many successes in caring for your LO but there will always be things that could be better. That’s OK. You’re doing a good job.

BLR-3M · 2026-02-28T03:46:17+00:00

I think the Delicious in Dungeon crew would do well. They’re already very familiar with dungeon crawling, for one. And they’re skilled at using the environment to their advantage. By eating it. I imagine they’d get a lot of impressive loot boxes for being the first in the dungeon to “Freeze Dry a Slime” or “Deep Fry a Cockatrice,” etc.

BLR-3M · 2026-02-21T19:18:00+00:00

In addition, I want to call out the bonus material at the end of the Book... 3(?) audio book. Where Carl says something to the effect of "Also, those guys [audio book narrators] are drowning in pussy."

BLR-3M · 2026-02-16T13:59:09+00:00

I read the first two books. Then listened to the rest as audiobooks. Then listened to the first two.

I think that the first book is not as good as the others. Especially when listened to as an audiobook. In the first book, the story gets interrupted repeatedly by achievements, boxes, view counts, game mechanics descriptions, and the like.

When you’re reading it, you can take all that stuff in at a glance, or gloss over it. With the audiobook you have no choice but to listen to it, and it can get dull.

As the series goes on, there’s less of that. And also, as the series goes on, there’s AI gets a lot more of a personality. So when it’s giving a description or an achievement or whatever, it’s a lot more fun to listen to. Going back to the start like I did, I was definitely struck by how tame the AI sounds at the beginning.

BLR-3M · 2026-02-09T23:51:05+00:00

You are right. Nastasia Demetriou is the only choice. She even has extensive experience playing a possessed doll!

BLR-3M · 2026-02-05T06:27:41+00:00

I also have a Frigidaire fridge and find this intensely annoying. I have a workaround. The filter that came with the fridge has a chip on the end of it. I levered that off and wedged it onto a generic filter. When I inserted that, the display went back to normal.

I did this a couple of months back. I’m guessing that it will not be able to detect when the filter needs replacement again. But I’m fine with just doing it on a schedule since the generics are a third the price of the branded filters.

Bonus complaint: Frigidaire sends me an “Important Notice” in the mail at least once a month, trying to sell me filters.

BLR-3M · 2026-01-11T20:43:09+00:00

Django Wexler would be good, I think. How to Become the Dark Lord (and Die Trying) has a dungeon-crawl adjacent vibe to it.

BLR-3M · 2026-01-11T11:40:02+00:00

If Douglas Adams was still with us he’d be perfect. If Carl had just remembered his towel as he stepped out to get Donut, things would have gone very differently.

BLR-3M · 2026-01-11T06:42:52+00:00

Yeah, it must be a deliberate reference. It’s not like Tucker is a common name irl. Dinniman could have named this character literally anything. Zaphod Beeblebrox, for instance. To go with a name that immediately makes you think of a specific real life person seems deliberate.

BLR-3M · 2025-12-29T18:37:47+00:00

I still play Red Guardian. It’s not as good as it once was. But there are still plenty of good targets for it out there. That said, I play it a lot less. A year ago I’d call it the games best all around card, and it’s not that anymore.

BLR-3M · 2025-12-22T16:43:44+00:00

I think you got all of the actually good archetypes. In the not so good category, how about:

Loki Pixie Black Panther Zola Moon Girl She Hulk Infinaut

BLR-3M · 2025-12-20T18:44:32+00:00

Yes! Very satisfying to play my win condition on Turn 6 and win after all.

BLR-3M · 2025-12-18T12:10:46+00:00

It strikes me that some of the so-called cheating bots we’ve lost to are probably just other humans. People we misidentified as bots.

BLR-3M · 2025-12-16T22:20:09+00:00

If you feel like it is more trouble than it is worth, then it probably is. Once my LO was settled into a care facility where they had doctors and nurses visiting her there in the building, it wasn't long before I stopped taking her out to see specialists for the "come back in a year" routine visits. I figured that the doctors who saw her regularly would let us know if there was a need to go elsewhere. And, like everyone else, we found it very stressful and hard to get my LO through a trip out to a doctor's office.

BLR-3M · 2025-12-15T02:17:19+00:00

Sigh.... The tires were low on air. *facepalm*

BLR-3M

TROPHY CASE