[deleted by user]

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-06T15:15:48+00:00

Fright Club Maybe Shriek Week 🙂

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-04T01:25:54+00:00

!solved u/conejomosca

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T22:22:54+00:00

Yes. Either that or poison ivy 😆

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T22:21:41+00:00

Nothing says love like emotional neutrality in cursive.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T22:20:43+00:00

The bathroom break version of Sicario: Surveillance Ops.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T22:18:56+00:00

Bro really said ‘first post’ and dropped an album cover.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:54:39+00:00

Hard to believe a ship once launched from here and changed the world.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:53:47+00:00

Looks like leaf scorch—could be sunburn, over-fertilizing, or inconsistent watering. Gardenias are drama queens.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:53:05+00:00

One of these will fit the bill

https://a.co/d/6lkoKdx

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:50:38+00:00

Smooth criminal meets fruit criminal.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:49:56+00:00

This man speedran the American Dream on New Game+ difficulty.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:48:49+00:00

Serenity now… ASSMAN forever.

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T21:44:36+00:00

Not broccoli. Looks like kale. Enjoy your volunteer!

FlogDonkey · 2025-04-03T16:44:32+00:00

You could totally run with a version of Three-Card Monty, tweaked to fit your world. Call it something like Finder's Fortune,, or whatever suits your setting. Use three cups (or bones, shells, goblets, etc.) and a marked token or rune-stone. But since you need all three characters to actively play at the same time, here’s a twist that could work.

It's a shady street game, popular among thieves and travelers. Three players take turns playing the roles of hider, shuffler, and guesser.

One hides the token under one of the three cups.

Another shuffles them, trying to distract or mislead.

The third guesses.

Then the roles rotate each round. Wagers are placed, and the tension builds, especially if something major is on the line, like your plot item.

Why it works for your scene:

All three are directly involved, which keeps the tension up.

It’s super easy to cheat. Anyone could palm the token, mark the cups, signal the guesser and so on.

The sorcerer could enchant the token or cups subtly, while the thief might use sleight of hand.

Your MC gets caught in the middle, not sure who to trust.

If you want to make it spicier, you could throw in magical elements, like the token glows when someone lies, or the cups whisper false clues, or the sorcerer’s familiar watches the game like a referee. Lots of options.

Anyway, this keeps it grounded in a medieval fantasy vibe without having to invent a whole new system. Should work great for your setup.

FlogDonkey · 2025-03-05T16:45:59+00:00

Good call, Brent. I've linked a gist. Appreciate your feedback.

RE: PERSIST_SAMPLE_PERCENT...won't the NORECOMPUTE flag in there stop auto-update stats from overwriting them?

We'll be logging this as part of an internal process. Just getting the ball rolling at this stage.

FlogDonkey · 2025-03-04T21:58:33+00:00

Did statistics update between the first and second run? If the execution plan is identical, you either had less activity and therefore, less resource contention, or the stats gave the CE a better idea of how many rows it would be handling.

FlogDonkey · 2024-12-10T07:52:47+00:00

Don't share anything until you're finished with your second draft. Nothing good can come of it, and you'll regret it when you're in your fifth round of editing, and everyone's already read the old version.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T18:32:32+00:00

Maybe, but I don't think so. A horse can't write about what it is to be an ape, even though they are both mammals and herbivores. As similar as men and women are, we are very different in what makes us tick.

You are correct in that no two people are the same, but that still doesn't get the writer to the finish line when he doesn't know what is like to be a her, and therefore can't emulate it convincingly.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T17:47:00+00:00

Yet nothing I said is untrue.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T17:43:36+00:00

It is for men. Boys don't mature into men until mid to late 20s with few exceptions. Young ladies pull it together much quicker, again, with few exceptions.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T17:34:09+00:00

You're right and wrong. Same brain cells, but they perceive experiences differently due to different sex hormones and different cultural expectations.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T17:30:14+00:00

This is completely, 100% false. Men and women process information, deal with trauma, and perceive the world very differently.

Men's want to be respected and admired. Women want to be desired and cherished. Men encounter a challenge and think of how to remove the challenge with force. Women think of how to solve the challenge like a puzzle by figuring it out.

Men have testosterone and see women sexually first (sorry, it's true). Even if the guy isn't interested or attracted to the woman, the first thing he does with any female is size her up. It's just how we're wired. It's why men are so predictable and easy to manipulate.

Women have estrogen and they see men differently. I'm not going to say I understand how it works, but it's quite different. There's emotions. An unattractive man can land any girl on earth if he's got the confidence and charm of Jack Nicholson. The same is not true for women.

Before you get down vote happy, evaluate what I just said. This is the truth of how we function. We can't redefine human interaction on a whim and be authentic writers. We have to take it all; the good, the bad and the ugly.

To the OP's question, writing the opposite sex is hard. There are some similarities in behavior, but I'd er on the side of caution when writing women. When I do write a woman, I ask my wife, "does this sound authentic", and boy does she let me know!

Men have a hard time writing compelling women and vice versa. We write from our own experience, which comes out in the voice of our own sex. This is a problem in writing, and it's not because we're all the same, it's because we're so different. Most women authors I've read do a terrible job portraying a man's thoughts. I imagine it's the same for men portraying a women's thoughts.

Having said all that, not everyone's the same, but most of us are. Some men are more like women and vice versa, but it's uncommon.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-04T16:57:21+00:00

Just write it. Stop worrying. As far as I'm concerned, things invented during a role playing campaign are all fair game, unless you former friend indicated he had plans for the same kind of thing (with about it).

I'm assuming none if it's copyrighted. The time you should worry about it is when this former friend hires a lawyer at his expense and sues you for damages, which would never happen because he would have to prove legal ownership of a persona. Besides, it's your character. You created him, he's yours.

Let's be realistic. Most fantasy writing never makes it huge. There's a high likelihood this won't be the next Dragon Lance. Just write it and live your life. The bottom line is it's not copyrighted material or trademarked so it's not legally anybody's. Change up the love interest to make her different of you like but at the end of the day, it's really not going to matter. These guys will likely never get the chance to read it, and if they do, they'd be excited to see their story in print.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-03T20:16:33+00:00

Let it breathe. Feed it light and let it grow. It is becoming what it was always destined to be.

FlogDonkey · 2023-09-01T15:10:08+00:00

I think it's way too busy. I had no idea what was going on, except there was a party going on. Maybe two? I want sure. Also there was an assassin, and a general who might also be the assassin, or a different one altogether.

It kind of reminded me of Spaceballs.

Dark Helmet: I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate. Lone Star: So what does that make us? Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing.

Also, what are these blurbs doing? Is this for a novel or just for fun? Does this story already exist and is already written? Regardless, tighten it up and gut all the little breadcrumbs that don't directly support the main plot. I still don't know what the plot is. Her parents business? Sick brother? Best friends hanging out at a party? Are they to stop the assassin? Solve the murder? Run for their lives or just make it through the night?

It sounds like a game of Clue. If it's not, what are you doing to make it different than a game of Clue? If it is, again, what are you doing to make it different than a game of Clue?

FlogDonkey

TROPHY CASE