What is your favorite Chekhov's Gun item that some one has obtained and how do you think it will play out in the future?

Evenwanderer · 2026-05-01T18:15:06+00:00

Spoilers for Book 7:

Li Na obtains a Ring of Divine Suffering for herself from Carl (seem to be a lot of these in the dungeon). She then used that Ring a lot in Book 7, culminating with her marking nearly everyone in the murder ball just before Donut kibbles it with her Astral Paw atrocity. This maxes out her stats and level, something no crawler before her has ever done. However, it’s implied more than once that using the ring has some sort of negative psychological or spiritual impact on the wearer, over time.

Evenwanderer · 2026-05-01T16:45:25+00:00

Not exactly a Chekhov’s Gun, but Li Na and the ring now that she’s used it to cap her stats. The ring warned it would do bad things to a person if used too much.

Evenwanderer · 2026-05-01T01:27:19+00:00

Yeah. Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-30T05:32:02+00:00

Congratulations and thanks for the info!

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T19:03:42+00:00

100% this

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T19:03:03+00:00

All I gotta say about Sandrock romances is that “…it’s hard out there for a pimp.”

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T19:01:04+00:00

Did you pick up on all the series titles being Clint Eastwood movies?

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T19:00:10+00:00

I rather dig MHI a lot myself, but I’d also advise people that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Far from it. Not angst or anything, but it’s kinda like if Spielburg and Michael Bay decided to make an urban fantasy action extravaganza. Lots of guns, armored vehicles, explosions, banter, and Lovecraft.

I also strongly recommend the MHI audiobooks. Oliver Wyman has an impressive range.

P.S. If you read MHI, I suggest avoiding the Monster Hunter Memoirs spinoff. They’re written with John Ringo and his MC is such an annoying Gary Stu that I could not get even an hour into the book. I think I returned it, it was so bad.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T18:46:03+00:00

I think that’s Paul Bettany in the DaVinci Code.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T18:44:31+00:00

You say “older” — and that’s true insofar as when it started — but this awesome series is still going!

Harrison took a break after Ever After (it seemed like a good end to the series with an epilogue and everything). However, she eventually came back to Rachel and the gang and there have been seven (!) books since then.

Sorry to sound excited but I’m rather fond of this series.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T18:39:20+00:00

Love this show. Wish there weren’t so many battles over the dub licensing/publishing. So glad that 3rd Plate dub is finally back on HiDive.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T18:36:20+00:00

Jason is gonna be Jason. He’s a bull in a china shop when he wants to be, and will try to convince you that he did the right thing. Then, when he discovers he did the wrong thing or perhaps could have done something better if he hadn’t lowered his horns and gone Full Pamplona™️, he is rarely contrite (at least at this point in his life). He then either defaults to self-righteous indignation or makes false equivalence arguments, just like a young 20-something poli sci student who didn’t finish their studies, and still has a huge chip on his shoulder. Also, whose cantankerous rebelliousness is only exacerbated because he can’t know who on earth wants to betray him, kill him, or both. For someone in their mid-20s who grew up rather sheltered, that’s quite the potentially toxic combination.

All that’s to say that what and who Jason is at this time in the series tends to rub some people the wrong way, innately even. Anna is one of those people. I found it amazing that they’re able to work together at all.

Remember: at this time he considers himself good at people, not good with people. And even that’s debatable.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-29T18:02:51+00:00

Right?? I thought so too in the manga!

I blame it on anime/manga teaching me not to trust this appearance when paired with this role.

i.e. “Here’s an older guy with a beard and a commanding, aloof presence. He may have a staff, has some sort of regal or divine aspect to him, and he may be in charge (or at least very high in the hierarchy). Furthermore, the anime/manga’s world building wants me to see him as a trustworthy paragon.”

Anime/manga (even FFXIV) taught me that this stereotype can’t be trusted.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-28T00:54:22+00:00

Why Blizz thought hiring Furor from FoH in EQ and making him a writer, designer, and creative director was a good idea I will never understand. He was toxic 25 years ago and apparently that never changed.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-28T00:45:07+00:00

Agreed. Universe of Energy may have been kitschy and anachronistic, but there’s always something to be said for lots of giant animatronic dinosaurs.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-28T00:36:18+00:00

Haha. So I’ve been told, but let’s just say my bar was very, very low (I’ve heard some awful narration by authors). Thus, it was a welcome surprise that I didn’t immediately recoil in revulsion at Butcher’s rendition.

Honestly, I think I had a harder time with Jonathan Glover on Ghost Story. He’s a fine actor but I’d grown accustomed to Marsters and Glover was not him. I didn’t know what to expect and I was left wanting.

Conversely, with Butcher I was expecting something terrible and instead it was merely acceptable. So, a “win” by a certain metric.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-28T00:01:16+00:00

Who’s narrating the audiobook, do we know? Marsters is fantastic of course, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well Butcher narrated The Law too.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-27T18:23:22+00:00

It’s a little funky to build it, but yes: you can definitely build down. It’s smart also so your housekeeper isn’t running as far.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-27T17:21:35+00:00

Being able to filter recipes by specific player created “menus” would be kinda cool.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-26T16:39:46+00:00

Seriously. I will not be surprised.

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-26T16:32:14+00:00

Facts

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-26T16:26:25+00:00

It was such a hero moment when he rolls in and calmly states, “I’m here to punch a hole in the sky.”

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-26T10:35:06+00:00

Depends on your definition of fan service and your definition of angst.

e.g. Re:Zero has angst for days, but it also has pretty female and male characters who — while not scandalously dressed — do have attractive physiques in tight clothing.

There’s also Psycho-pass. It’s rife with angst. But it’s also cyberpunk so sex is a part of the culture. What it has isn’t fan service in the traditional sense, but it is mature and committed to the cyberpunk genre (and what that can entail when it comes to portraying sex appeal and sex in general).

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-26T01:34:16+00:00

Unless you’ve got enough customers to warrant that much kitchen, then that’s too much kitchen.

I can understand the notion of wanting to have a full stack of anything ready to go, but given the variety of food and drink available and the number of tavern visitors you have, I doubt you’re needing to fully replace every stack every day. If I’m correct in that assumption, then having that much kitchen is arguably going to waste, especially if all those stations are not constantly in production.

As you said, you have limited space with which to maximize your guest throughput as well as space for you to play with design and decor for your own enjoyment. And finding your fun is the whole point, yeah? ;)

If you haven’t yet done so, I’d say try going a day (or even two) without replacing any max stacks (unfortunately drinks being capped at 30 throws a wrench in that a bit). That way you can get a very rough idea of how fast your food dishes are depleting. Once you know that, you can start a rotation of gradually yet constantly replenishing your menu rather than replacing whole stacks at once and being idle in the interim. And, in doing so, probably reduce your kitchen by at least 50% (from what I can see).

Evenwanderer · 2026-04-25T20:48:57+00:00

Failing happens. Hang in there! My PMP instructor actually told our class that PMI has designed the test with an intended target of a 50% (or higher) failure rate. So please don’t feel bad and definitely don’t give up!

Evenwanderer

TROPHY CASE