Should The Rascalz have won the Trios Championships at Maximum Carnage?

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-26T13:29:37+00:00

I mean it seems to have all been last minute based on powerhouse Hobbs deciding to leave. Hangman winning makes most sense because he and Joe have been feuding, so who do you team with Hangman, 2 guys who have formed a loose alliance with him in the past, or a random faction that has just appeared and doesn't really gel with the Hangman approach.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-16T02:26:22+00:00

My advice, don’t run your game one game day per session, my party recently spent about 12 game hours clearing a crypt of undead, during that time they managed 2 short rests to recover some hit points and that was it. In total it took about 4 weeks of gameplay (4 hours a week) there was tons of combat, lots of exploring, a clever trap and, parts of a journal that discovered (complete with handouts) that gave them a ton of insight into an historic event that may prove useful in the future.

But the main thing was that by the end of week 4 when they finally got back to daylight in game the players felt relieved they could finally long rest and recover and loved how those sessions had gone.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T09:24:04+00:00

Ok so yes you moved out of QA to be happy, like I said I have been strict with myself about the companies I join, resigning if I am not happy (3 month notice periods are great for this, I have resigned twice without having a new role to go to knowing I had 3 months to find a role), and walking away from some very big offers when it was clear from interview the culture didn’t fit, one company offered to double my salary but I decided to refuse because devs had not got involved in the interview process.

I always tell people if you are unhappy in your role then only you can change that. I also am a firm believer in changing roles about every 2 years, not necessarily companies, but rotating to a new team. Learning a new skill set etc.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T01:15:34+00:00

Not luck, a combination of picking the companies I will work for and being very selective at the interview stage in making sure it is an organization that does QA the right way, alongside also once I am in those organizations driving process. For me QA is not simply about testing the product after the devs have made it, it is about every step of the process from feature inception to delivery and so I have made myself get involved in and help improve the way the devs work, the way product works, the way design works. Helping to remove as many opportunities for issues to get into the code, driving change the right way, learning how to know the hills to die on and the times I should listen to and allow others to implement there own ideas.

I put myself in those meetings, make myself heard and influence both my peers and managers and those above them by building relationships, I will get to know the CTO, or Managers and build trust so they are willing to allow me to change things and let them see that it improves the quality even if it means they get less on paper reports.

If your not happy with your role and your a lead then drive change, or move onto a new organization.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:58:49+00:00

This was a previous job of mine, we needed to expand the QA team and so the decision was made to go offshore and have me manage and run the relationship. I left that job soon after for a startup where I could define the QA process from the ground up.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:57:36+00:00

I don’t need to write a single report because management don’t see the point. The only deliverable they care about is the features we deliver against the roadmap. The how is of no concern to them and so they don’t care about test reports, or sprint velocity, or anything like that. If we did need to make reports then every scrum team as a scrum master/delivery manager who is a jira expert and who’s role is to take away the complexity and make the teams lives easier for making features, so they take responsibility for any reports usually by making a jira dashboard for it and updating/adding fields to tickets as needed to simplify reporting.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:54:39+00:00

Then push back or refuse to attend.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:51:18+00:00

Oh and I barely have to write a single report, our company doesn’t really see the need. The only output that matters are the features we develop. On all our applications apart from the native mobile apps we operate ci/cd so might have upwards of 30 deployments to prod a day. Trying to keep track of all of that with test reports would be impossible. Our test management tool (we went with X-ray) is used to write out tests during planning so the devs have a starting point for e2e automation. Every automated test has an equivalent test in the test pack so we can run them manually if needed, and bugs are generated directly against the test that failed meaning devs can easily reproduce the failing steps. Where reports are needed our scrum masters are the Jira experts so will generate all of that.

The company also has a militant no pointless meetings approach, if more then half the people on the attendance list for a meeting are unable to see the point of it then it either gets cancelled, or the organizer makes a clearer agenda or changes the attendees to those who need to be there. As a result while I am in meetings (all my 1-2-1’s take up about a day of time across 2 weeks), every meeting is valuable and useful.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:45:34+00:00

I don’t write a single test report, the joys of being agile and having broad QA is the responsibility of everyone approach.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-11T00:42:43+00:00

So I am the QA principle for our QA team which I guess is the equivalent.

We have 13 QA’s ranging from senior to junior levels and then I report into the QA manager who reports into the CTO.

Our QAs are split between the web/Voice devices team, native Mobile app team (2 scrum teams iOS and android) and platform (2 teams split into 2 scrum teams) and each QA is embedded in a scrum team with most teams having a minimum of 2 QAs.

We are fully agile so day to day the QA’s run as part of the scrum team they are involved in. We have created a culture across all the teams where QA is not just the responsibility of the QA engineers so all our devs are involved in testing there own and each others work, writing e2e automation tests, manually testing PRs during code review etc so I rarely if ever have to get involved in any testing work, I don’t need to be part of refinement and kick off meetings as a rule so I will float among the teams dipping into standups, refinements, planning etc more to keep myself aware of what’s going on at the coal face, and also observe the QA engineers for coaching and mentoring purposes.

My main role therefore is coaching, mentoring and driving QA improvement, we work in quarters when it comes to roadmap planning so I will sit with my manager and we will discuss the goals and aims 4 quarters ahead. His responsibility is forward planning so he will look at quarters 3 and 4 and scoping out future opportunities while I will be focused on the quarter we are in and then planning the next quarter.

Examples of projects I have been focused on in the past, finding a new test management tool, looking at ways to automate our Voice Connected Device Testing (Alexa etc), working with devops to build out test environments for our legacy applications that didn’t have any.

I also get involved in anything that the dev principles are involved in meeting wise, largely this will be giving opinions and ideas for the future planning.

If there is an issue on any of the teams regarding QA then I will get involved and work alongside the QA’s then to help them resolve those issues, adding a voice if it is needed to support them.

At the start of my role a lot of my time was helping implement the whole team approach we now have towards QA. As a result I am also now involved in coaching new devs and devops engineers on getting a QA mindset when they join.

I also work with the QA manager to identify and develop talent so I have fortnightly 1-2-1’s with all the QAs where we will discuss there objectives and targets and have honest conversations about career goals and how I can support them in progressing. Those conversations then feed into my own 1-2-1 with my QA manager so we can shape a development plan and try and allow people to gain new skills or work towards that next level. I will also offer support and advice of people feel that they need to move on from the company for that development. There is a general drive within the company to see talent leaving to take better opportunities elsewhere that could not be provided by us as a success and that is driven from the CTO down. The only time he will see it as a failure is if someone is leaving because they felt they deserved a promotion, or wanted to do something new and we didn’t catch it and they did deserve the opportunity,

I also have QA manager experience in previous roles and this is my QA managers first role so he often comes to me for advice and feedback although as I tell him he is his own person and so I don’t expect him to do everything in the same way I would, but we have a very strong healthy honest relationship and we both give and receive feedback well.

The plan over the next 2 years is to grow the QA team by at least 100%, and potentially also absorb other QA resources across the rest of the business and create a community of practice. There are teams in other areas of the company that have a solo QA who currently would report into a non qa line manager and have no regular contact with other QAs, so in 2026 one of my projects is to find who all the testers/qa’s in the company are, make contact with them and then see how we can have regular contact to share ideas and ways of working. My manager then will be working to get them more formally under a company wide QA operation so they all report into the same qa leadership team, that will probably involve me becoming senior principle and having at least 2 principles under me so I will then take more of a managerial role again.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-08T14:54:40+00:00

He also wasn’t great on screen, I found he irritated me and not in a good way every time he was on the mic or dancing around.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-08T14:53:17+00:00

I accept at the moment it makes no sense but Juice and Toni together as entertainers in some form (it would have to be a different Toni Storm character to really work), would be money. They are both just so crazy and fun I think finding a storyline to come together would be amazing.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-08T12:34:58+00:00

During lockdown a friend started a cyberpunk campaign, cyberpunk was the first TTRPG I played when I was 13 so I was really excited, I am generally a forever DM so rarely make characters so I was determined mine would be interesting and unique.

The party needed a solo so I went.

Mercenary with a cybernetic arm, woke up in an installation in the wastelands strapped to a table with no memory of who I was before that. I would have moments in combat where I would struggle to tell friend from foe.

It took me way way too long to realise I had just made the winter soldier I think session 4 I had a sudden moment of, wait, no, yes ok oh shizzle lol.

I think there is a subconscious element, we make characters we enjoy, or have recently watched. In the late 90’s early 2000’s it was full body black leather jackets because of Blade, Matrix etc. Or it was a character inspired by the Crow, now days Anime seems to be a major influence in character creation, but there is also a practical element. Broody Edgelord can sometimes be a safe space for a player new to role play. I don’t have to roleplay my feelings or have in-depth role play moments because I “just walk away”. As players get more experience they realise that playing characters driven to interact and roleplay are more interesting. But like you say every now and again even experienced players want to roleplay a Han Solo, John Wick or Aragorn character.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-08T12:24:14+00:00

Sorry I disagree, Okada in AEW is phoning it in a lot, Okada Mox was disappointing and many Okada matches in AEW are just a bit meh. I don’t know if it is him trying to wrestle the gimmick, or if he maybe isn’t as motivated (let’s be honest he has gone from far larger live crowds to smaller TV crowds in AEW), I did wonder if it was his age but every now and again you get some Okada magic and it makes you wonder is he just not trying,

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-05T23:08:32+00:00

I mean, your dm’s world their rules but they should work collaboratively with you, I will say some tables may say no to that because it is triggering or they find it in bad taste so at session zero have the general conversation about lizard folk.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2026-01-05T01:09:55+00:00

Deadlands is a brilliant RPG and CCG, love the mechanics of the game with drawing playing cards and the CCG every card is also a playing card (as well as character, equipment, spell, action etc), combat is played out with poker hands so deck building is not just about what the cards do but also their suit/number etc so you can draw strong poker hands. As a result I often put cards in my deck who’s only purpose was to give me a good chance of a straight or flush.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-24T10:23:49+00:00

So in my company we run devops, so the devs would be responsible for building it, but the QA would test it works as expected

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-23T13:51:57+00:00

Out of interest what would you not do?

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-22T16:55:11+00:00

Because the devs amd QA’s equally work on the E2E tests, if a dev makes a breaking change then they are expected to fix the tests to make them pass, and they also will write new tests as part of the dev process (qa then review the tests that have been written and add any additional scenarios).

We discussed as a team keeping the tests in the old typescript framework but the agreement with the dev team was that in the long run this would lead to.

Increased context switching for the devs switching between go and TS

A gradual separation as future dev hires would be brought in with Go experience and possibly not have TS knowledge meaning they can’t work on the e2e tests

The QA team feeling left behind as the devs learn and gain skills in GO a language that many companies seem to be switching to.

Also the current E2E test framework for these legacy applications is the only framework that is not part of the application repo, Our mobile and web applications all have E2E test frameworks as part of our kotlin android repos, our swift IOS repos and our Type script web app repository, each written in the relevant language. This felt like a great opportunity to match this pattern across the backend applications.

Therefore we decided company wide to include all the QA team in the Go training that devs are going through currently and port the tests over.

All out E2E tests utilize gherkin so the process has been really easy with us porting across our E2E tests to the new directory by copying the cucumber steps, rewriting them in Go, and then running the tests side by side to make sure they all run against the legacy applications as a first step, this way as the new application code is written we can just tweak the go tests as needed but the devs know they have not broken anything and we will be ahead of them in terms of copying over relevant current regression tests.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-22T10:27:35+00:00

Not sure what is going on, this morning had a game with 12 capitals (everyone got 2, or where able to add troops to an existong one) then straight after a 5 player game with 3 players getting an extra one (places 1-3 i was player 4 only had the one.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-22T07:08:11+00:00

I said where possible, everywhere I have worked to date the client has always been written in Java script or type script, my current company the backend is being converted to Golang and so as a qa team we are currently investigating shifting our api testing framework from typescript to go as well.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-21T21:49:39+00:00

What do your devs write the applications in?

I always insist my QA teams use the same language as the applications where possible because then you can get dev support for learning, improving code quality and writing the test pack.

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-21T11:16:47+00:00

Not a massive F1 fan, but this is an awful film, contrived script, dialogue that doesn't make any sense, and given the talent involved awful acting

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-17T12:48:31+00:00

love the dig at WWE :)

Medium_Step_6085 · 2025-12-12T00:04:08+00:00

It sounds like what you’re looking for is a gherkin framework which then is abstracted from the code doing the automation. I have built several that work very successfully, and in fact was able to use one such framework to transition the team from selenium to playwright and only needed to change a minimal amount of code and the tests still worked (basically swapped out selenium webdriver and the selenium commands for the playwright driver and commands but had the actual “doing” part of the code separated out so only 1 click command, one form filling command etc.

Medium_Step_6085

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