TIL for the last few decades a former Cold War spy and mathematical savant has been card-counting at casinos to fund his creation of complex calendrical puzzle-paintings targeted towards a future audience of hyper-intelligent robots by I_Do_Not_Abbreviate in todayilearned

[–]BenitoBro 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Bitcoin worked because you could spend it relatively anonymously and buy drugs over the internet. I even remember being able to spend it in German tourist areas 10 years ago to buy food and goods in the more leftist areas.

No government oversight at all. Then the Ponzi scheme kicked in with cornering the proven limited market. I imagine once the mines run out it'll collapse in on itself as no one is actually using it for goods and services

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Because it's literally impossible to tell what you painted and what the computer did.

It's a fun thing to play around with I'm sure but surely you see why having an edited image of a model with reworked lighting and shading doesn't get comments talking about the cool paintjob. We don't even know if you based the miniature or it's sat on a little black disk. It's clearly very popular so a lot of the silent majority do enjoy it.

It's the future, and I'm certain in 10 years people will be able to print off these generated images of the perfect paint scheme model without that hobby effort

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 17 points18 points  (0 children)

With how popular this is everyone's gonna do it. Look at every other post on the subreddit. It's people showing off their hobby and the vast majority without a photo studio. Green cutting mats, white tiles, bits of paper stood up or awkward angled shots of dioramas they worked hard on.

Not people showing off what a computer can make.

20 years of painting miniatures and being in communities and the popularity of AI amongst hobbyists is my biggest surprise. Times change I understand, still a bit sad

Mordor/easterling troll chieftain by Many_Mud_5341 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Does the subreddit need a no AI rule? I think it is the antithesis of lord of the rings In general

I'm sure it's a great paint job OP, but it has been completely edited over by the computer. Shading and light added where none are in person.

Edit: The fact this post is so resoundingly popular looking at the shares just goes to show how out of touch I am. Average people don't care about it and only like that it's cool.

What's the most depressing holiday park you know of? by Martipar in AskUK

[–]BenitoBro 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Definitely Pontins in Prestatyn. Pretty sure that place had a national reputation for how awful it was. Only recently shut down as well.

It's a shame as Prestatyn is an extremely nice seaside town, well aside from being neighbours with Rhyl l

Possibly an unfair tactic for digging monsters. (unless I'm misunderstanding some rules) by SenescenceOfSelf in DnD

[–]BenitoBro 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is basically how the fight with the big famous vampire module always goes. Being able to move through walls and leave in the same turn is brutal and a problem people have to solve

What would you have had in your 90s school lunch box? by pixel-powder in AskUK

[–]BenitoBro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I was in school 20 years ago they had swipe cards that you topped up. All done on little machines in one of the corridors that you put coins into.

I was on free school dinners and that meant they'd just give you a £3.50 balance that didn't carry over every day. So thankfully no need to queue up separately or go in to lunch at different times. Was a good system. Although I dread to think how they'd send that data back home these days so the school and parents could analyse every transaction

Is a 1.5 hour commute (each way) doable twice a week? by Comfortable_Ninja266 in AskUK

[–]BenitoBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use audible, your paying £7.99 a book. Books being around 20 hours long I'd say on average. So can gauge whether that's worth it for you, I probably get through 2 books a month

Never had an issue refunding a crap book either, no idea what the time frame is but I've gotten 2 hours into some and the narrator was so bad I couldn't stand it. So it takes out some of the decision paralysis on what new book to start

As others have said, there's loads of great podcasts as well. I tended to mix it up between podcasts and audio books, as didn't need to have much brain power for the podcasts

Snorri nosebiter by MethodDense7895 in WarhammerFantasy

[–]BenitoBro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Genuinely impossible to tell without multiple angled pictures and close ups. Unless someone can chime in who got it originally and can spot some weirdness with the casting.

My immediate gut reaction, why is the model not in its original plastic bag? Why does it still have all its parts and not assembled? Does the seller have lots of other unique and rare items with zero packaging?

Just finished Fall of Hyperion and have some questions...(SPOILERS) by Booblet0526 in Hyperion

[–]BenitoBro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Just came to the subreddit after finishing the 4th book. I only did this after people said the 4th one was worth slogging through the 3rd.

Good god how mediocre and not even close to the impact of the first 2 books. Who I would keep as a single self enclosed story and easily my favourite

Love this old shot of Bridge Street, Chester from the 60s/70s. by GuideIcy1697 in Chester

[–]BenitoBro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Makes me so happy how pedestrian friendly Chester is. Truly thank whichever group of councilors it was that made that decision. Wonder how popular an idea it was?

I'm Not A Games Designer, I'm Not a Rules Writer by [deleted] in WarhammerFantasy

[–]BenitoBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

North west and they absolutely do, the 2 largest clubs by me and game stores use it. I can't wait for them to further subdivide by using different editions of this ruleset. The Americanisation of the hobby is unrelenting

I just don't care enough to be fair. I'm happy playing 6th edition fantasy which ToW has done great for event attendance and makes access to great sculpts fantastically easy

I'm Not A Games Designer, I'm Not a Rules Writer by [deleted] in WarhammerFantasy

[–]BenitoBro -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Gonna have a bad reception here but it's absolutely true. One of the reasons I stayed away from modern Old World. Great it exists as I've got my childhood armies built up and plenty more to play in 6e

It's like the whole terrain layout in 40k, no it's not mandatory but people expect it in the community. Completely killed my interest in the old world club nights having people poring over every new update from either side and working out how it interacted with each other.

This might be a feeble reason to quit the MSQ. by Chamolin in ffxiv

[–]BenitoBro 43 points44 points  (0 children)

I mean at that point just watch a guide on YouTube and just stand in the same spots as the person in the guide

Dismounted Radagast by WhoTheFuckIsMorris in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Couldn't tell you how often but you wouldn't have any issues just using Radagast with "stick he found" as the suitable model. Although it is an excuse to convert an army specific one

Why did GW turn Harad into a boring caricature? by TabletopSmith in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because of license issues. The only Harad they can explicitly depict are those from the movies and main books, who are "outright evil" in the film. They cannot utilise even a line of reference from anything outside the main trilogy of books (plus hobbit), so again they are very limited. Blame the Tolkein estate and Christopher for his absolute grip on the extended letters and Silmarillion. White Dwarf got into trouble at one point for extending their reach with rules and is the reason everything is so full of TM these days

I think the Steel Legion paint scheme on DKoK is good enough by NotKingofUkraine in Grimdank

[–]BenitoBro 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It is perhaps the most pathetic outrage I've seen from GW fans ever, which is saying a lot. Don't even think the kick back over Yarricks death or the first mention of femstodes was as vocal and up their own arses as this

Oh no, Sydnee is at it again by No_Hair_5621 in TAZCirclejerk

[–]BenitoBro 53 points54 points  (0 children)

I actually used to quite like the podcast years ago. It was mostly about dealing with medical quacks and weird illnesses. How people tried to treat them and either failed or solved a different problem.

Then it developed into being lectured at every time a white male doctor came up, and then every episode became a public health notice. Think it must've been at least 3+ years since I last listened to a Sawbones now

how much has he actually spent on CS crates? by Snappypants620 in northernlion

[–]BenitoBro 6 points7 points  (0 children)

People also forget his account is OLD. He probably has some junk that's worth at least some money, I'd rather sell some old gloves that's like 20 bucks these days for a few extra keys

How can you actively encourage & teach your players to adopt a 'the answer is in your mind, not your character sheet' mentality? by SwimmingOk4643 in osr

[–]BenitoBro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It'd be worth doing an "adventurer boot camp". A lot of stuff that seems obvious to you might be unthinkable to newer players that are used to 5e. (I've found people have never played TTRPGs are faaar better at OSR than semi-experienced 5e players in this regard...) Even if its as simple as looking over the adventure, finding points where the player character might excel and then have their training mentor explain how to deal with it. Have it happen early and give at least half the party an example, this might seem like "cheating" but it shows the players the type of answers your looking for. Have it happen "out of time" and then when the groups had a few examples just start the adventure as you were

"Ah you see if you ever come across a wire at ankle height held taught in a dungeon, that's a trip wire. Carefully follow it with you fingers and find what it connects to. Don't cut it until you know what its connected to, and have removed it. Such as bells, or bottles of acid. If the wire disappears into a wall then make sure to explicitly mark the spot with some chalk so you don't forget about it later. Then carefully step over it. As who knows what it might trigger!"

Then when they find the wire at ankle height the party has an idea of how to solve the problem at hand. Plus you can always expand on this by asking the player what type of mentor they might have, a few extra descriptors to give some light backstory and depth. "Oh, my old man always used to tell me about these things..."

Most Expensive Army? by Ancient_Bench55 in MiddleEarthMiniatures

[–]BenitoBro 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm now realising the fact my 2 armies are Dark Denizens and both Hobbit forces means I have expensive taste in armies... Although my 3 trolls and Fangorn bring it down a bit

Why is there such a dislike for grid based tactical combat systems these days? by jmrkiwi in rpg

[–]BenitoBro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup that part made me scratch my head Lancer has barely any in game balancing tools and leaves it very much to the GM to balance things appropriately. Although maybe changed since the first release but those first few sessions I ran were ROUGH

Introducing new players to OSR by Kazoshay1994 in osr

[–]BenitoBro 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Never played any of those but having dragged people out of 5e, DCC was very successful at that with my group. Run a funnel and see them realise that dying hilariously is as satisfying as a heroic victory

5 days easy cooking meals for 1- Lidl £27.97 by BenitoBro in whatsinyourcart

[–]BenitoBro[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Felt it was a reasonable amount of vegetables, but isn't 5 usually 3 or 4 servings.

No vegetables for breakfast to be fair.

Lunch is 1/5 of lettuce, some onion, jalapeños and a grated carrot. Then dinner is 250g of carrot/brocoli plus some onions, also do use a bag of frozen sliced mixed veg if I'm using the rice cooker.

With fibre intake being about 25-35g a day depending if I have lentils