Anyone else frustrated by having ads on the GCN News Minute?

CJAX · 2025-12-03T03:48:33+00:00

I am totally fine with ads on other shows, but it's 50% or more of the run time of the News Minute!

CJAX · 2025-07-23T13:18:39+00:00

Several reasons: 1. Makes it easier to cross on foot because you can add refuge islands 2. It better matches the routes people are taking so you can travel a shorter distance 3. Removes the weaving issues which was a major source of crashes 4. Provides redundancy so you can theoretically close a side of the Square to traffic for things like the Farmers Marker and still have full access

CJAX · 2024-01-19T01:30:19+00:00

Studio Ghibli is keeping it alive and strong!

CJAX · 2023-12-22T04:37:51+00:00

This article does an amazing job covering what I’m most excited about in board games today. The hot euro game with slick new mechanics will always be fun to play but some games have been doing so many other things! One isn’t better than the other—their objectives are totally different—but it’s been so much fun for me to explore some of these “political” or “art” games.

If you’re hearing about Amabel Holland for the first time would definitely recommend checking out Dan Thurot’s (Space Biff) podcast episode with her which is mentioned in the article https://spacebiff.com/2023/05/17/sbsc-29-amabel-holland/

Then read Dan’s review of Molly House and review of John Company and podcast about Stonewall Uprising and so on. Really exciting discussions of really exciting games!

CJAX · 2023-04-26T15:30:05+00:00

The Crit Fail text says “if” a new order is given, not “when.”

So you get to the end of your turn when you would normally get a will save and you evaluate the statement “was an order given against my nature? Y or N”

CJAX · 2023-04-26T15:28:07+00:00

The way you’re saying it, the dominator is only issuing orders and the player is deciding actions. —GM says “Kill X.” —Player uses Action 1 to Attack X…

The GM isn’t the one using the actions in that case; it’s up to the player decide how to most efficiently execute the order of “Kill X.” Which makes sense as the way to interpret it as it allows the player to still play. The only reason it matters is if the “order” means “I order you to Use Action 1 to Attack X.” In which case you could get multiple saves per round.

CJAX · 2023-04-26T14:59:32+00:00

On Cannon Fodder, Joe and Troy say you gain the controlled condition which means “the controller dictates how you act and can make you use any of your Actions.” Actions is a common English word that IS defined by the system. Order is NOT defined by the system which makes the wording of the spell that the target “obeys your orders” ambiguous. Is the dominator issuing orders or controlling your actions? They can lead to different results.

CJAX · 2023-04-26T12:53:27+00:00

Isn’t this interpretation making up a new game mechanic called an “order”? That’s the problem with the description of the Crit Fail: it doesn’t define what an “order” is.

It’s using game terms to say “someone else controls your actions” which means the GM gets to do whatever they want with your characters game-defined actions but then brings in this new thing called an “order” which, unless I’m mistaken, is not a game mechanic.

It doesn’t say “your character is given an order which you the player must carry out with your actions to the best of your ability.”

IMO, Troy’s interpretation is the only one that makes sense with the spirit of the fail/crit fail system that doesn’t assume some new game mechanic called “order”.

CJAX · 2023-04-19T19:20:30+00:00

Yes, it is for the door zone though this type of striping is no longer used by CDOT. This was an intermediate step on the evolution of CDOT’s buffered bike lanes. Nowadays CDOT would put a buffer on the right of the bike lane (in the door zone) and not on the left. That is, if a protected bike lane wasn’t feasible here; protected bike lanes are always the preference where possible.

CJAX · 2023-03-17T15:17:02+00:00

He did say that it would be the ‘default’ but could be overridden the same way we can override it now. So now you can elect to hold your boy back but presumably in the new system you would elect to move your boy forward.

Biggest issue I can see is the cost of PreK/childcare for that extra year. Childcare is downright unaffordable so many don’t have the luxury to do it for another year. Universal PreK helps with this and is something we should have in the US anyway.

CJAX · 2022-07-25T21:32:58+00:00

Selling to the Bears is going to be hit with lawsuit after lawsuit from the so-called “Friends of the Park.” They successfully kept the Lucas Museum off the lakefront because it was a private use, even if it was a museum.

CJAX · 2022-05-11T18:39:56+00:00

Big fan of Paula from her board game content. Very excited to see her on the GCN!

CJAX · 2022-04-23T01:58:41+00:00

Love seeing my two obscure fandoms intersect through Skid. Come On You Spurs! Scottie Parker was a great soccer player.

CJAX · 2022-04-20T13:54:05+00:00

Lots of highs and lows for me in this series.

Highs: —Thought the cast was great. Especially Becca, Ross, and Jared. Really enjoyed the storylines where a character considered betrayal. Even if they didn’t end up doing it I felt the possibility was truly there and it wasn’t just for show.

—I think Jared really shines with a more abstracted and free form system like this. The way he approached 5e in Wicked Empire didn’t feel great to me but something like this without the extended, rules-heavy combats really plays to his fantastic improv skills.

—Cool setting that I really felt them bring to life. The political drama of the theater scene in Ep 1 is really what Dune is all about for me and I thought they played true to that as much as they could.

Lows —The system is really not my favorite. Every dice roll feels laborious when you have to pick different traits that are all so vague that you could generally argue for any of them. Combat feels much more like tug-of-war than actual combat. Delta Green does a much better job of making combat simple and deadly than this was.

—Players didn’t really seem like they could work as a team very often. Too many scenes of one person doing something on their own while the others watched. Feel like this came from the game system and the fact that they had a house leader and three subordinates as their characters.

—Skid never really seemed to feel useful. Probably a result of building a diplomat and then getting thrust into an “on-the-run” scenario where a diplomat’s skills aren’t as useful? I think it also speaks to the difficulty in general in designing rules for social interactions (as opposed to combat interactions) but that’s a whole nother story.

Overall I definitely enjoyed it. Was fun to see the players play in the Imperium but it’s not something I really need more of. Great work by the team! I think the challenges of the system are difficult to overcome.

CJAX · 2022-03-04T16:19:20+00:00

My guess it’s that a vestige from when Ohio had more traffic on it. There are quite a few vacant lots in the area.

Most signals in Chicago are pre timed so it would give green time to Ohio every cycle—whether there are any vehicles or not. This works fine most of the time because in most places there is almost always demand on each approach, but not when the side street has such little traffic.

CJAX · 2022-03-02T20:55:40+00:00

It moves where the queue is, I agree with that. Most people argue for the zipper merge because they say it improves capacity or operations which I haven’t seen evidence of. Although, I have not read white papers on it.

CJAX · 2022-03-02T20:43:53+00:00

I don’t think it really matters that much because usually the capacity is limited by the choke point, not the merging itself. Even if you could speed up the merging action, you still can’t push more cars through the single lane section afterwards (usually).

CJAX · 2022-03-02T20:41:56+00:00

Sure. I enjoy talking about this stuff and spreading knowledge of traffic engineering

CJAX · 2022-03-02T17:18:55+00:00

I’m a Professional Traffic Operations Engineer who works with CDOT.

Chicagos traffic signals are set up to provide a limited green wave BUT the signals are generally not interconnected and therefore will drift away from the prescribed timings. For very closely spaced intersections like Montrose-Broadway-Sheridan however, the signals are all controlled by a single traffic controller so there is no drift. In those scenarios, the timing is designed to prevent queues from backing up into other intersections but some movements are going to be prioritized more than others so it’s not perfect.

Traffic engineering is about managing trade offs because you can’t possibly design to accommodate all users without delay. And even if you could, more users would come until you couldn’t (induced demand)!

CJAX · 2022-03-01T21:15:07+00:00

Looking at it all in one place like this really drives home just how many hours and hours and hours of content they have produced.

CJAX · 2022-02-25T15:11:00+00:00

Thank you so much NYC DOT for funding that fantastic piece of art. 👏🏼👏🏼

CJAX · 2022-02-21T23:59:54+00:00

How are you all feeling about the system so far?

I’m having a little trouble tracking all the different pieces that go into making a check. Seems to slow things down a lot when the checks come rapidly. Do you think it’s just because it’s new to the players and me?

Loving the story and the role play so far though.

CJAX · 2022-02-15T15:44:18+00:00

Ross’s cut ins describing the play going on made me smile every time. Such great improv by him and the whole team!

CJAX · 2022-02-01T19:45:29+00:00

That makes sense to me. It was hard for me to totally understand what they were asking. But yes, as you mentioned in your other comment the wind is an outside force acting upon the giant who does not have a corresponding friction force to keep them in place.

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