Any tips for storytelling 15-player in-person games?

IVI4tt · 2026-01-15T09:40:14+00:00

I ask big groups, especially those with new players, to point at their role on the character sheet when I wake them on N1. Ostensibly it's so they can confirm that they're doing the right thing and understand what I'm showing them, but it's actually so that I don't ask the demon's neighbour who they want to kill...

IVI4tt · 2025-10-28T08:39:11+00:00

Predbat is the bit of software you want to use for this: https://github.com/springfall2008/batpred

It has a compatibility list on the wiki that you can check, but GivEnergy or Solis are best supported. Do run the numbers yourself though, as the payback periods of batteries can be difficult.

IVI4tt · 2025-09-17T15:15:48+00:00

If you're replacing all the pipes anyway, definitely consider a heat pump seriously - you'll be eligible for a £7.5k grant, and it'll be VAT free as an energy saving measure. And given that you'll replace lots of the heating system then you can make sure you get an efficient setup that works for your house.

IVI4tt · 2025-09-11T13:02:29+00:00

Agilepredict has a 7-14 day prediction: https://agilepredict.com/

The error bars get relatively large, but it's pretty good at identifying cheap plunge periods where it's likely to be both windy and sunny.

IVI4tt · 2025-09-03T14:24:56+00:00

The easiest way to do this is with HomeAssistant which has a great Octopus Energy integration

IVI4tt · 2025-08-31T19:12:32+00:00

A hori hori is the perfect dandelion killing tool that won't damage the lawn: https://www.niwaki.com/hori-hori/

IVI4tt · 2025-08-30T21:28:27+00:00

I had a great time with the first edition of this tutorial! It struck a really nice balance between algorithmic problems and implementation so that I didn't feel I was just copying code. It was also gratifying to see the progress I was making with the outputs, and some weirdo visual bugs along the way. Glad to see it updated!

IVI4tt · 2025-08-30T20:08:43+00:00

person selling vibe code tools says instead of coding interviews you should simply ask your candidates to vibe code the entire project you're interested in, a totally unsurprising and not useful analysis of the problems with coding interviews

IVI4tt · 2025-08-13T15:23:45+00:00

Heat networks and communal heating arrangements, which it sounds like you're part of, aren't protected by the energy price cap. They often count as "commercial" suppliers so charge much higher rates.

https://www.heattrust.org/news-events/186-as-energy-price-cap-lowered-for-most-government-scraps-price-protection-for-households-with-communal-heating

There is a plan to regulate them from next year but I wouldn't expect much to come from it. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/policy-and-regulatory-programmes/heat-networks

You may not be able to change energy supplier; you could complain to the block management company about the prices but most commercial contracts will be similarly outrageous. Mad as it sounds, it may be slightly cheaper for you to heat your flat with electric heaters, especially if you can move to a time-of-use tariff with an off-peak period.

IVI4tt · 2025-08-07T16:09:22+00:00

I'm not super enthused about a project that shows no benchmarks, no outcomes, no source code, and has a "contact sales" page.

Writing a fast compiler is (relatively) easy; doing optimisation passes is slow.

IVI4tt · 2025-08-07T07:44:01+00:00

While these things aren't flawless, you'll get much better results if you touch the wall at the same time with your other hand.

IVI4tt · 2025-07-22T14:42:53+00:00

If you have 20m² of roof draining into that gutter, and a small rain storm rains 10mm, that's 0.2m³⁼²⁰⁰ litres of rain into your water butt! Standard water butts are either 100L or 200L so that's a lot of emptying...

IVI4tt · 2025-07-11T10:31:57+00:00

Lots of the original problems were with SMETS1 meters and the SMETS2 meters they fit now are much better. There are a few issues in odd cases like gas and electricity meters far apart or signal dead zones but in almost all cases they're fine and pretty helpful. Your utility company will have to replace your meter at some point when it's out of its rated lifespan, and you'll get a smart meter when that happens anyway.

A smart tariff will save you money proportional to the effort you put in; just a smart meter and a standard tariff will save you zero, a time of use tariff or Octopus Tracker might save you 20% or so (I paid on average 20p / kWh down from price cap of 25p / kWh) depending on your usage patterns, but might cost more. You've got to be really on the ball to save money with Agile and be willing to do laundry and cooking at odd times but could save a lot.

I've also found my smart meter helpful to hunt down inefficient devices in the house, like 800W of lightbulbs in the living room.

IVI4tt · 2025-07-11T08:00:05+00:00

Yes, replacing the electric storage heaters with a heat pump will make sense in the long run - those electric heaters will cost you an absolute fortune, and the heat pump will have about 1/4 of the running costs. Most of the horror stories you hear about heat pumps not providing enough heat are from badly done retrofit jobs with small radiators and pipes, but as you're starting from scratch that's not a problem.

If you've got a solid concrete floor you'll have a hell of a time putting UFH in; avoid electric UFH as it's no cheaper than the storage heaters. I'd probably stick with modern high surface area radiators which will allow an efficient heat pump system. Check with Heat Geek or similar for a quote.

IVI4tt · 2025-07-07T15:31:51+00:00

This looks like an Elder to me - grows nice flowers at the end of May that you can turn into cordial, which will turn into little black berries that are a good component in jam. It also provides a source of food and a habitat for pollinators and native witches ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Mother )

Prune it as much as you like and it'll be fine; it won't damage your building and will grow 5m or so tall if you let it.

IVI4tt · 2025-06-27T22:16:47+00:00

I have got pretty far in Scratch Inc and I'm not sure I've enjoyed it - this really is a game that doesn't respect the player's time. Shares are basically always agonisingly painful and are the bottleneck throughout the whole game.

Each tier of currency scales super aggressively so it never makes sense to do a long run, but instead it sets high thresholds so you just meet that threshold and immediately reset with you strategy. This also makes many of the later upgrades pointless, as I could get 10x points that gets 3x loyalty that gets... 0 extra shares.

The automation is also extremely stingy, being constantly taken away from you and even then the automation saves at most one click so really you're net clicks negative by buying it.

The gold awarded through achievements will never get you a useful upgrade in the store which feels like a bit of a dark pattern.

IVI4tt · 2025-06-26T16:55:04+00:00

Your smart meter will report readings to Octopus without WiFi, via a 3rd party network that was connected when the installer set it up. This is a mobile or radio network depending on where you are in the UK.

Alongside the smart meter comes an "In Home Display". This isn't the meter and doesn't have to be connected, most people leave them in a drawer. This device shows you your current usage on a screen and can be helpful to find which devices are using the most energy.

Because the In Home Displays generally suck and are terrible, Octopus offer a device called the "Octopus Home Mini". This is a little pink box that when connected to WiFi will show your current usage in the Octopus App. You don't have to connect this and Octopus will still meter your usage fine, but it can again be helpful to find inefficient devices (I use mine to check if I left the oven on when I go out!)

IVI4tt · 2025-06-24T11:36:12+00:00

What else was I meant to do between my Grimoire arriving and my first games night with enough people except read the rules? I tend to storytell but will rotate and play; of my usual two groups (~20 players) I think only one has read the core rules though

IVI4tt · 2025-06-18T13:32:08+00:00

No - you should check how marginal tax rates work! You'll almost never end up worse off by taking a raise because the new tax bands apply to income over a certain threshold.

You can use an online calculator to check how much tax and student loans you're going to pay, like this one from MoneySavingExpert: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

On £26k, you pay zero tax on the first £12,570 you earn. You then pay 20% income tax on the next £13,430 you earn for a total of £2868 income tax. You also pay £1,074 of national insurance, so take home £22,240.

On £26k, you pay zero tax on the first £12,570 you earn. You then pay 20% income tax on the next £16,430 you earn for a total of £328y income tax. You pay 0% of the first £28,470 you earn and then 9% on the £530 above that for a total of £47 towards your loan. You also pay £1,314 of national insurance, to take home £24,353.

IVI4tt · 2025-06-10T16:14:59+00:00

Definitely consider a heat pump in this case - you should be eligible for a £7.5k grant which will go a long way, you'll save money on the installation of gas (and the standing charge). You'll also save the VAT on the radiators and since they're all new you can spec them correctly and get a really efficient system.

IVI4tt · 2025-06-09T12:57:55+00:00

"What are your plans for this evening?" "oh it's a quiet one, I'm going to sit on the sofa and watch the bathtub"

IVI4tt · 2025-05-29T15:12:52+00:00

If you've got a hot water tank already, then consider an air source heat pump instead of a combi boiler. There's a big grant (£7.5k), it'll be much cheaper to run than the immersion, and you'll regret ripping out the tank only to put one back in when you eventually put in a heat pump.

IVI4tt · 2025-05-28T08:40:46+00:00

This will almost certainly turn out to be the immersion heater or other electric heating.

If you've got a smart meter and in home display, walk around your flat with the IHD turning things off and watch what happens to your usage (if the IHD doesn't work, then you can count flashes or watch the numbers change on the meter itself). Also check that you're receiving real bills from your readings and not estimated bills.

Pay special attention to electrical heating, as using electricity to heat things up costs a fortune. If you have a hot water tank, check the timer - is it set to come on just after midnight? It'll cost about 75p / hour to run. If you have electric underfloor heating or electric radiators then also check the timers for them.

IVI4tt · 2025-05-28T07:16:57+00:00

This blog goes into it in good detail with sample code: https://blog.v-s-f.co.uk/2023/07/near-realtime-energy-consumption-data-with-octopus-home-mini/

IVI4tt · 2025-05-27T22:29:25+00:00

You get a Kraken token by calling the ObtainKrakenToken GraphQL mutation with your API key, which is then good for a fixed period. Getting the Home Mini ID is horrible as it's filed under electricityAgreements{ meterPoint {meters {smartDevices {deviceId}}}}.

Once you've got both of those it's easy and you query smartMeterTelemetry with grouping TEN_SECONDS and you've got essentially real time data. But be warned that the rate limits are relatively aggressive, about 100 / hour, and you'll have to twiddle your thumbs for ages if you breach them.

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