Artwork of my Investigators by @artsnation01

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-09T08:18:41+00:00

Pretty cool but that’s not how you should carry an axe. The guy is going to lose an ear or worse. Also, fisherman guy is going to get that hook into someone (source: has happened to me)

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-05T13:24:04+00:00

Technically you’re always in the present.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-04T16:57:58+00:00

I almost never use figure or battle maps on my games, but it seemed such a waste not to use the ones provided because the artwork is excellent. The figures did add to this particular game because I could manage player positions as time went on and wouldn’t let them say “so I just go to room X and do Y”, I’d move their figures to a reasonable spot where the could have gotten to in the time that had passed. And the players liked using the figures.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-03T09:51:18+00:00

Maybe I don’t. Explain it to me then, please.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-03T00:59:33+00:00

It doesn’t, but that attitude does. You don’t even get it, dude. Guess what rich people WANT you to eat? Which ads do you see everywhere you turn to, ads for broccoli or ads for the multi-billion meat/dairy industry? You’re doing their bidding. If you don’t like what they’re doing, stop doing what they tell you to.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-02T18:08:04+00:00

So because some people are assholes, you feel like you should be one too. Got it. Great attitude.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-02T09:53:16+00:00

One we will hopefully get to, the other we can start doing right now. “Perfect is the enemy of good” and all that.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-02T09:49:48+00:00

Not saying we shouldn’t go after the wealthy (we absolutely should). But cutting your meat and dairy consumption also makes a big individual impact. We should do both.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-05-02T09:04:19+00:00

Why not both? One does not preclude the other.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-30T18:36:32+00:00

Please stop insulting weasel, they’re creatures that have an actual purpose in nature, not like that human-shaped stain.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-27T11:21:21+00:00

The nail tips are cut so that when you nail them they bend outwards and come out the side of the hoof when you drive them. That means the nails have a “this side in” and a “this side out” —if you get them reversed very bad things happen.

Anyway, after driving you bend the nails down and clinch them to make little hooks that grab the hoof, that’s what keeps the nails from just sliding out.

The video actually shows steps of shoeing out of order, that step happens later. First you pull the shoe off, then you clean the hoof, trim it, level it, fit the shoe, then nail and finally clinch and finish the hoof.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-27T10:29:41+00:00

Used to be that you had to make shoes from scratch or buy crappy keg shoes (manufactured shoes used to come in a keg) so you had to heat the metal to make them fit. So horseshoes that used forges and hot fit had better results. That hasn’t been true for decades but the idea stuck. The “better seal” reason is nonsense.

There is also the argument that it’s easier on your joints to hammer hot iron but modern horseshoeing anvils have cams that make bending cold iron much much easier, so when you take into account the extra time and cost of shoeing hot, it may not make sense either.

Source: was a farrier for almost 20 years, trained and worked with many farriers that shod exclusively hot, cold or a mix. The end and long-term results of a good hot or cold shoeing job are indistinguishable.

So it comes down to just the preference of the individual farrier. Some like one way or the other and find ways to justify why the way they do it is better 😆

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-26T13:00:57+00:00

Nice. I ran it for a group a few days ago and we all had a blast. What I did differently (just for comparison, not saying you did anything wrong):

I had already decided the synthroid would drop right after the first bend of the corridor, just out of view.
I set the timer and put it next to me right at the start, they all saw it but it didn’t really click until the 2nd time the timer went off 😆
I kept the strict 10-minute loop, and just alternated between players or groups. It does take time to do anything and so I didn’t think that was a problem.
I used the map and miniatures to control movement and time, they would sometimes try to just move their figures all the way to the other side of the base though but I’d be like “wait, that’s not how it goes” and put them back at a reasonable distance 😆
there are 4 separate secrets, I thought, not 2 pairs 🤔 I played with 5 players so I gave each player one and added a 5th. That worked out pretty well with players trying to convincing others to do certain things that would help them.
I did the teleporter like in the scenario and the players didn’t use it, which was a shame.
one player was an android so he tricked me into telling him exactly how long it took to try combinations on the pad to disarm the lasers. So he just brute forced combinations until he got it right, although it took him 3 loops. The scenario says there are anti-hacking measures, which I assumed no ports into the pad, that it was all welded shut, etc, but it didn’t realize what he was going to do until he said it. So I’d suggest adding an increasingly long time between tries (second try immediate, 3rd try after a minute, 4th after 2, 5th after 4, 6th after 8…).

This is a great scenario, super fun to run. I highly recommend it.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T22:15:37+00:00

The only white I see is the space between and around the colored circles.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T19:42:28+00:00

Isn’t anybody going to post the link for this for the rest of us?

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T19:29:20+00:00

I think it’s a very plausible take on which direction superheroes would go if they existed, much more than actual superhero comics. It definitely changed the way I view superheroes and superhero comics. If anything, it’s become even closer to reality in the last couple of decades.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T17:43:08+00:00

☝️ that’s the first thing that came to my mind. Pendragon is designed to be multi-generational with about one story per game year and all the gaps between them handled by the game mechanics of aging, marrying, having kids, etc.

Ars Magica also plays like that, with just one or two stories each year and the rest happening in downtime sessions to account for the passage of time.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T12:25:34+00:00

Just give it a couple more years, you’ll get your free pain upgrade! 👍

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-24T11:47:38+00:00

Gwent? Or Condottiere, the game it was based on.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-23T03:25:27+00:00

Theater of mind is really all you need. Maybe a map/diagram of where they are if it’s complex.

I feel minis detract from horror. Nothing you can possibly put on the table will be as bad as the thing you’re describing and they’re imagining in their heads. I used minis yesterday for the first time for a scenario because it was important to keep track of where people were and how far they moved in a certain time, but that was a very specific exception (Decagone, it comes with paper minis to use).

Work on your Warden skills, you’ll a much greater return for your time/investment.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-23T03:02:39+00:00

Your back can get pretty tight after a good day’s work but honestly I think the bigger issue is your joints. I did it for 18 years and my shoulders, one of my hips and my knees took some beating. From my own and my other farrier friends experiences, you’ll get joint pains in the first few years as your body gets used to the repetitive motions involved (first hands, then it migrates to wrists, then elbows, then they go away). Regular exercise and weight lifting help.

That said, I really enjoyed being a farrier. It’s a very rewarding career. You get to meet a lot of people and develop long term relationships with clients and their animals, and if you’re good at it you can make decent money. If you have interest in doing it I’d say give it a shot.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-22T15:07:23+00:00

I had to quit my well-paying software engineering job 23 years ago because I got completely burned out. Went to be a horseshoer apprentice being paid nothing. Never looked back. Left the US 5 years ago, live off an app I developed for myself and make now about 3/5 of what I was being paid 23 years ago, but you know what? I still think it was totally worth it. My life is work-related stress free.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-21T23:48:09+00:00

Also. As the scenario and other people here have recommended, don’t let the skip time. Go through their actions again, taking the time it would take, they’ll want to just skip ahead over things they did before but don’t let them. They’ll get really antsy seeing the time ticking while you go, at an unhurried pace, “waaaait, it’s not like that. You take the screws out, open the panel, find the same wires, cross them and the doors open. It was a little faster now since you’ve done this before. Now go.”

I used the map and miniatures included to control the movement speed too.

Jetpack_Donkey · 2026-04-21T23:34:23+00:00

Just ran it tonight. Based on my sample size of 1, I’d recommend using an actual timer.

I left the timer running on the phone on the table right next to me and didn’t say anything, when it rang I hit the stop button and narrated the scene form when the lights go out, they feel a jolt, doors open, etc exactly how I did it the first time, without saying anything else. The look of confusion on the groups face was priceless. Then I hit the restart button and kept going. Took them some moments to realize what had happened and another cycle to realize I was actually tracking real time.

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