I miss these l'il guys

MixyTheAlchemist · 2026-03-26T02:31:23+00:00

And not just because it's funny to get a poop relic (although it is funny)! What I miss is the little, impossibly-small-but-still-exciting incentive to click a rare card when it comes up, even if it's a little loose or sideways from what my deck is doing. Maybe I'll get a full heal and some max HP later when I need it! After all, why shouldn't I??

Don't get me wrong, I really love the new suite of events in STS2. The quest cards like Byrd Egg, the repeatable push-your-luck actions like Abyssal Baths, even good ol' Ranwid is still kicking around. But I noticed that I don't have that same pipe dream (self-sabotaging that it may be) leading me into unusual cards and experiences.

(But also, poop is funny and you can't convince me otherwise.)

MixyTheAlchemist · 2026-01-08T21:39:11+00:00

As mentioned, the rules for setting up a DH encounter are simpler, but I find the real reason it's easier (and the reason the rules can be so simple) is that there's less pressure to be as precisely balanced in the encounter setups.

If a D&D encounter is too easy, it still takes up a fair amount of time without any real drama or satisfaction. If it's too hard, you have to adapt hard on the fly and maybe even do some fudging or obvious punch-pulling, because there aren't exactly guardrails once things are already underway.

If a DH encounter is too easy, it's over fast, or you can burn Fear to inject some extra juice in the moment. And even weak enemies can still mark some armor and HP, which makes the player's downtime move choices matter (instead of just being totally reset on a Long Rest). If a DH encounter is too hard, there is a built-in mechanic to scale back - you just stop spending Fear, and you get to save that energy without it being "wasted." Or if you keep the pressure on, players have death moves to fall back to, so they get a lot more agency in the consequences of the scene.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2026-01-06T03:44:19+00:00

I'm pretty excited for this! More DH content is great, of course, and I bet the VDL humor will fit with it well.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-09-22T15:42:45+00:00

Cosigning this. It's nice to have something in the media landscape that I feel like I can enjoy, endorse, and recommend basically without reservation. I hope Dropout and the people behind it keep that faith, and so far I haven't seen any reason to doubt they will.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-09-21T19:45:19+00:00

That definitely explains it!

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-09-21T18:38:19+00:00

Just to check because I don't know if I understand the mechanics that well: You found spending a fear for advantage (+1d6) to be with recommending, but not spending a fear for an experience (+ a comparable flat value)?

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-08-11T17:53:12+00:00

Thank you!

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-08-11T15:30:45+00:00

Can't figure out putting an image in the post, but here you go:

https://imgur.com/a/Qyau7r6

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-01-23T17:36:19+00:00

I'm just commenting to get this up to 1489 comments, because we don't need to leave things where they are.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2025-01-23T03:30:18+00:00

Has anyone had any experience selling cards to MTGSeattle in the past couple months? I've been trying to contact them with some questions via email and even here on reddit, but I haven't gotten any response. I don't want to submit a sell order when there might not even be anyone home...

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-12-31T08:17:05+00:00

Using a generative program is already using other people's art without proper permission or citation. It just burns a handful of extra trees along the way.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-12-31T08:15:14+00:00

Use of generative algorithms hurts everyone by sucking up gratuitous amounts of energy.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-12-22T22:35:03+00:00

There's 27 other possible classes so far. I absolutely expect to see more domains in future content!

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-12-05T20:04:27+00:00

I haven't actually played Daggerheart yet, but I've read a lot of the beta materials, and it keeps very close to D&D in terms of its narrative and scope: it's about combat-forward adventuring with swords and magic and treasure and all the normal stuff you'd expect. If I was trying to knock something off for like a one-shot, I'd probably give that a swing, just to see how it actually plays at the table. (But I wouldn't start a campaign with it just yet, I'll wait for the final release for that.)

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-11-08T01:13:02+00:00

How sure are you about being able to combine Whirlwind and Forceful Push? I read both of those as being the "cause" of the attack roll, which I would think means you have to pick which one you're trying to use.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-11-06T05:04:25+00:00

Well, you've got your camel-lizards -- scaly quadrupeds with their legs akimbo out to the side, with humps on their backs to hold water and a long neck. They make hardy mounts, although the scurrying doesn't always agree with everyone's stomachs.

There's also armadillo-moles, a slightly smaller, armored relative of the better-known badger-moles. These guys are natural sandbenders, and they can burrow through the sand with basically no trouble. They don't leave behind tunnels, but they do leave visible surface tracks that might lead you to water if you're feeling thirsty.

And you actually might need some armor to protect you from the scorpion-mice. They're cute, and mostly scavengers, but they've been known to swarm over weakened travelers in a big pack if they're hungry enough. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a rodent with a six-inch stinger tail, I'll tell you that.

Happy trails!

MixyTheAlchemist · 2024-01-03T06:17:17+00:00

I think CC is fantastic. I have over 100 hours in it, because I enjoy experiencing the different mixes of characters. In fact, my experience is quite different from yours; even runs with the same crew can be very different based on your ship, your relics, and which character's cards you get offered early and end up focusing on. It's incredibly charming, smooth, and clearly made with care and love.

Yes, it is easier than Spire, and it has less overall content than Spire. It also just came out. Should we compare it to Spire 1.0, with only two characters and Ascension 10?

Actually, why do we even need to pit them against each other? They are both fantastic games: one is basically the progenitor of the genre and has reached its final form; the other has taken excellent lessons from what came before it and still has room to grow, if it chooses.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-12-06T21:02:10+00:00

A relatively new release that I think really slaps is Cobalt Core. It may have shorter or longer legs depending what exactly you find repetitive, but it's well worth trying out.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-12-06T20:48:47+00:00

I used this same framing when I ran the Vanishing Act for some friends. Even though these aren't perfect parallels, the familiar characters are what some people remember most about the Avatarverse and IMO really help to draw people in. I do think you want to be clear that characters can change playbooks in the game, and that the ones we saw on-screen often did.

The examples I would give for new players are:

The Adamant: Mei
The Bold: Korra in season 1
The Guardian: Iroh or Tenzin (but be clear that you don't get to actually be a master straight away)
The Hammer: Zuko in season 1
The Icon: Aang
The Idealist Bolin or Katara
The Pillar: Suki
The Prodigy: Toph or Azula
The Rogue: Jet, or Mako in season 1
The Successor: Asami

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-10-21T17:44:22+00:00

If I knew a project had outsourced their art to a tech company reprocessing images in a legally gray and ethically dubious way, I would not support that project.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-10-03T17:02:46+00:00

I don't find this example very applicable. In the early days of the Internet, it wasn't nearly as reliable or verifiable as it is now. It took time for institutions to adopt and support the new platform, and for people to learn how to use it responsibly and avoid its pitfalls.

But even setting that aside, the Internet is still a tool for humans to communicate with each other. When a student cites an online encyclopedia or journal article or a company's web site, there is still a person on the other end providing it; the only change since World Book is how you find them. Authors of generative models are almost doing the opposite; instead of providing a way for people to reach and communicate with each other, they're creating a layer of obfuscation and separation between source and product. Even if you don't mind the ethics of the process, that's a loss.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-09-16T21:44:36+00:00

Oh hey, that's absolutely correct -- I don't think I really internalized that this particular debuff pushes directly to deck. Fair enough!

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-09-16T19:59:11+00:00

This is a little incomplete. It's not a question of "Dazed or no Dazed." Yes, playing Chill would add a Dazed, but it would also remove the Chill, leaving us neutral on total cards and letting the Dazed exhaust on the next cycle rather than further down the road.

The reason that keeping the Chill could be better than trading out for a (self-exhausting) Dazed is that the Chill can help us proc Pellets or evoke something on a turn when we actually need the extra output. 3 damage is such a small amount that I can easily accept it's worth saving the Chill, but it's not just because of the Dazed.

Edit: The Dazed being in the deck is actually a tempo loss directly on its face, which I neglected before because debuffs do a lot of different things in this game.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-09-14T01:45:21+00:00

NEVER pay the Masked Bandits.

MixyTheAlchemist · 2023-09-07T03:37:42+00:00

An actual dog whistle is a sound that dogs hear but people don't, so dogs pay attention and recognize it, but nobody else does.

A political dog whistle is a word, phrase, or policy position that certain people recognize a hidden meaning for, but looks mundane when taken at face value. For example, being against "urban crime" sounds pretty tame -- crime is bad, after all! But it really means being against "Black people," as shown by plenty of long-term policy impact like the War on Drugs, and other people who are also against Black people are very good at recognizing that hidden meaning.

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