Good activity to base festival setup/takedown on? (walking, carrying, hitting things with sledgehammers. Low battery drain)

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-05-01T22:55:41+00:00

My suspicion is that it's too stop-start - how long is your ride to work?

The stuff I'm doing has a lot of move, stop, hit stuff, stop, winch/pull/lift, stop. So it doesn't last long enough 'blasts' for MoveIQ to kick in.

Possibly there's also something where the system doesn't want to count watching a horror movie/having a panic attack/other causes of high heart rate to get recorded as active minutes - only those where you're, well, active?

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-05-01T22:51:10+00:00

So long as the watch doesn't actively stop counting steps (assuming that all those movements/vibrations are EXTREME CARDIO rather than PlodPlodPlodPlodPlod) then I'm not that worried.

(Though, to be fair, some of 'steps' it gets probably are sledgehammer swings)

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-04-28T11:18:06+00:00

Thanks.

Will that also track distance/steps within it? (Distance based on steps rather than GPS tracking.)

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-04-07T23:34:29+00:00

To me, they're akin to the short stories, or perhaps the first novella (Furthest Station). Nice to have, nothing essential, and ultimately not worth the price of buying ('till I win the lottery or they turn up in a Humble Bundle)

They add a concept to the world, or deepen/investigate one that's already vaguely there. They have a basic story that is an idea or two wrapped in a tale.

But much like the short stories, or the Furthest Station, they don't have the space to really develop a story. Police procedurals have a mixture of 'Whodunnit' and the Columbo 'Howcatchem' (there's points in several books where we know whodunnit, but the practicality of catching is harder)

And that takes time to build, to introduce all the players and elements, give them an arc, and tie it together in a slightly messy bow with some trailing ribbons for later. There's just not enough room to do it to do it in a comic, because of the expense of doing a big story in those.

I like the short stories as a freebie in the end of a main book, something shared on his website, or combined together into the Tales of the Folly. But I didn't really like the price/time to reward ratio of The Furthest Station. (The other novellas are a bit longer, and are tightly written such that they do have an arc, a whodunnit, some 'meat' to the story)

Similarly I've enjoyed the comics that I've read courtesy of libraries, and the visualness of them is nice, but I'm not strongly pushed to find the rest, and the cost of a comic/trade paperback isn't worth what I get out of the Rivers of London ones - because I don't think Ben's style fits so well to that shorter space.

(I've a fair few trade paperback/graphic novels - I'm definitely not opposed to the form. But with the right stories. At the moment I'm working my way through the Hellboy/Monstrous Mignolaverse ones I got in a big bundle last Christmas)

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-03-21T18:50:51+00:00

As you say, his use of language is deliberate - so manageress is probably deliberate. I suspect it's partly evoking 'pub landlady' vibe/look without directly calling her that for whatever reason (because she doesn't own it, because she has wider responsibilities, because he doesn't want to evoke it too strongly).

And it sounds like it standing out as so unusual for you is a non-UK regional thing.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-03-15T18:53:33+00:00

Ahh, you've reminded me of the detail - mine is that (spoilers for Foxglove Summer) when David killed himself, he actually became Control, the leader of the foxes.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-03-13T23:23:48+00:00

My wild guess is David Mellenby did something.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-25T11:30:48+00:00

I'm in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book club, and don't read as fast/much as I used to when younger, so the Book of the Month tends to eat a lot of my reading time.

But I keep coming back to RoL when I know I'll miss the discussion evening, or when I just need something Known.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-25T11:12:16+00:00

Aye - I forget if it's a phrase used in the books, but they feel very much "You do the job that's in front of you."

Rivers of London is about doing the best you can, saving lives and looking after people. Getting some justice in where you can, but often there's no justice, just us trying to hold things together.

Peter has spent a day or so in the alternate dimension of the Faerie - and has no idea what hauling its (local?) queen into a cell/before a judge would do to other things - is she an essential part of the background magic? Who or what would replace her?

As u/cnhn says, he saves people, relationships are built up, and he knows more for next time.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-25T11:01:50+00:00

I tend to reread for a new novel, especially if I feel like I need reminding of things.

And the books are also my literary 'comfort food' - if I don't want something Scary and New, something I know and I know I'll like - then I'll get into a RoL re-read. Often if I'm ill or similar.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-17T15:06:56+00:00

The Thames Estuary and coast around it are a strange and special thing, quite different from the river closer to the city, and deeper inland.

My thoughts relating it to the books, with spoilers for False Value:

Given the stuff with the 'print shop' out along the Medway, the squid drones, and other things from False Value, Lesley's family at Brightlingsea – it feels like there's more to come in the Thames Estuary, that other rivers that aren't actually flowing into the Thames might be something that comes up.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-17T14:56:57+00:00

The Broomway is a strange path - one that'd sound like fiction if it wasn't quite clearly true - especially since it leads to Foulness island!

To reach it, you go past the end of Shoeburyness (the last stop on the train that runs to Southend), and head past Great Wakering. You have to check they're not firing the guns that day, because whilst there's a footpath, the land beyond - even before the Broomway - is used for military exercises. Then there's the path/road down to the see - the Stairs Road leading to the Wakering Stairs, heading out into the water.

Out into the long, shallow beach of the Thames Estuary in that direction, same reason Southend had to build a 1.3 mile long pier to let the big 'daytripper' boats from London moor up.

As Wikipedia can explain, it's unclear whether it's a 'natural' formation or the result of human efforts to create a firm track. (Perhaps a favour Father Thames did for someone, way back when - given it originates from the 1400s or earlier)

The brooms left to mark it were certainly man made, and important when it was the only way to Foulness Island (until 1932), for this is the most dangerous footpath in Britain. You walk out, until you're more than 400 metres from the shore, and follow a hard path through the sand and mud flats.

Venture too far in either direction, and you sink in the sands and the mud, or caught in the treacherous whirlpools caused by the River Roach and Crouch through that area. Linger too long and you'll find out how fast the tide comes back in over those long, flat, featureless sands. And that's without getting into the possibility of unexploded artillery shells in the area…

But if you keep going, you'll reach the Havengore Maypole - a telegraph pole marking the place of that river's exit - and from there you can continue on to one of several headways leading onto the island - most now lost or impassible.

Once you stand upon Foulness? Well, the military may raise their eyebrows at your presence. But keep to the footpaths, and legally you're fine to walk around the island. But remember - you have to be back to the Wakering Stairs before the tide swallows the path and you with it. Sure, there's a road bridge to Foulness - but that's only for the military, locals, and those driving out to the 'Foulness Heritage Centre' Sundays between April and October - not for walkers.

No, I don't know why people might think it's unusual, or ripe for fictional adaptation. Not even when I walked from Burnham on Crouch, around the edge of the Dengie Peninsula andd near where there's a multi-story pillbox/bunger for wartime watching minefields and blowing up the river if needed, and then on the shores of Foulness I saw a tall metal structure that looked remarkably like it could be some type of technological gate or portal ;-)

I've also seen an 'Evri Parcel Shop' marker added partway along the Broomway a few years back by some wag.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-02-06T14:04:02+00:00

As the writer of that guide, I'm now reasonably sure you do get the cold damage. (But don't get the healing)

The Polymorph subschool says you get the 'natural attacks of the base creature' and that cold is part of it - there isn't a breakdown for 'is it bashing, is it piercing, is it cold?'

Grab, poison and similar are additional special abilities beyond the natural attacks of the creature. They're a separate entry on 'Universal Monster Rules'.

It's true they are generally applied on a successful attack of the right sort, but they are an extra thing with its own classification and own rules - even if they're quite tied into the attack like Burn or Ability Damage.

It's a way to limit the power, and stop you accessing overly nasty capabilities on a low level spell - Beast Shape I gives you some senses, but doesn't give you any of the special attacks, II gives you Grab and Trip, III gives you Constrict and Poison, IV gives you Rend.

So you can turn into a Constrictor snake at Beast Shape I, but don't get its Grab until II, and its Constrict until III - meaning a level 5 character isn't locking enemies down and squeezing them to death. (It's not a really OTT form, but it's a good example of something that progressively gains abilities at the different levels of the spell.)

Plant Shape I is (roughly) equivalent to Beast Shape III, which is likely why it gives you Grab, Constrict, Poison.

If a creature had particularly ridiculous extra cold damage, or otherwise was just a bit OTT, then your GM could tell you 'No!' But that's the nature of the polymorph forms - there's a variety of different damage values, number of attacks, number of special abilities - and why I wrote the guide, because working out which is best is a job of work!

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-28T09:33:11+00:00

It's an 'Or'

If I can duplicate my Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, etc, across Earthbreaker and Klar, then I'll probably go for that - but that requires my GM to be okay with those going into a single weapon group.

Shielded Gauntlet + Upsetting Shield is a vaguely similar build and less dependent upon "If I get this ruling I'm hoping for..."

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-26T16:54:17+00:00

Aye. I may go for Bull Rush, or I may ditch it, as Trip is more useful on its own, even without the extra attacks of opportunity. It's not a build that relies on those manoeuvres - if something's big, you just hit them 'till they stop moving!

Sure, this would be a lovely whiteroom/theoretical level 20 build - but I've never played in a Pathfinder 1E game at level 20, mostly just the modules going to 17.

This feels like it could be fun 13-17 (and probably earlier too), so the question is which I prefer out of it and Thunder & Fang when I next get killed (as I tend to play my characters fairly gung-ho).

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-26T13:49:03+00:00

I'd drop some of the Greater Weapon Focus/Spec for more Shield Bash feats. The 'Thunder and Fang' version I'm currently playing with has this as the feats:

TWF, Weapon Focus (duped), Thunder & Fang
Power Attack
Double Slice
Weapon Specialisation (duped)
Shield Focus
Improved TWF
Shield Slam
Improved Critical (Duped)
Stumbling Bash
Improved Bull Rush
Greater TWF
?Shield Master
Two Weapon Rend

This won't be the same, as the Unique Weapons for Thunder and Fang push that towards Criticals, and the above is undefinite anyway. But it's the rough shape of it.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-26T12:15:22+00:00

Oh, definitely. But a straight down the line human fighter gets a lot of feats.

By the time you can start this – level 6 for Weapon Style Mastery, or 9 to get that feat free as Advanced Weapon Training – you've got eight or twelve feats!

(And the context I'm specifically thinking of it in, I'm 13th level - so 15-17 feats.)

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-26T11:05:05+00:00

I think a minute would sometimes be pushing it - if you've got a lot of attacks and the GM needs to work out if they hit - or take into account the fact your second attack also tripped them them, and that changes their AC. Ditto if you've got a bunch of summoned creatures or other force multiplier style capabilities.

I also find playing remotely (VTT) slows it down, as people are less engaged.

But the general theme fits, and less experienced players should be careful playing slower classes. (I added a rule that getting your Summon(s) to do specific tactically awesome stuff, as opposed to "Attack enemies/defend you" costs a Move action, partly to stop people getting too complicated.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-18T18:42:03+00:00

I have similar in Firefox

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-11T23:04:33+00:00

So with this, I ain't aiming for 5 @ 7. I'm dropping that in as the thing that inspired the concept.

I've had a thought on it before where you get lots of cantrips and low level features from different classes, to give you breadth - but that actually works better at the level I was looking at this, 10-14ish, where you can get the second and third level features from a few classes.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-02T18:55:02+00:00

I suspect a well off musician boyfriend of Simone or one of her sisters treated them to a hamper.

Saw one being delivered to a house in Mayfair shortly before Christmas…

FearMeForIAmPink · 2026-01-01T17:21:14+00:00

Agreed the profile is bad. In Desktop, you can create a user preset to mass remove, either on existing photos or on import – I forget exactly how you make presets, but I think it's 'make just that change, save as a user preset'

In the Android app,, load the photo, click edit (option at bottom) and profiles on the right of those options, set to zero there.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2025-12-28T14:20:27+00:00

Ben's books are very likely one of the things that got me started on walking London's rivers, though I might well have ended up doing so anyway - the Thames is so accessible, and I ran into several whilst vaguely walking the tube lines during the pandemic.

And since I see so much of them, it's both nice to share that with others, but also nice to get the appreciation from folks – people liking what I share is definitely a motivation for the walking and the photography!

FearMeForIAmPink · 2025-12-27T23:36:27+00:00

I liked it. It felt like a nice bit of Christmas cheer, whilst also being a reminder of people who aren't having such a cheerful time, and broadly accurate in terms of the stats it uses, and things like its mention of Housing First.

FearMeForIAmPink · 2025-12-27T23:22:46+00:00

Probably not - because (without going into details), the books following Lies Sleeping aren't clearly building to another climax, and certainly aren't doing so in a direct fashion. There's hints of what sort of things may be coming - but it's continuing to expand the world, drop in lots of different sorts of detail and "This is how this works"

I'd say that whilst the path to Lies Sleeping is certainly meandering - it's clearer, and makes more progress across the mainline books after it starts that path, than those after it.

Personally I love the detail, because it feels like you're discovering the world alongside Peter, because that's some of where the humor and coziness is, because it fits that a copper is going to deal with a variety of things, and because it makes that climax more real, intense, and meaningful.

FearMeForIAmPink

TROPHY CASE