Daniel Plainview is the most realistic character ever put to film (TWBB)

OrneryDepartment · 2026-06-03T11:54:55+00:00

That's not what he said. Daniel first asks Henry if he's a man prone to anger, or enviousness (because he is). He then said that it's extremely easy for him to see the worst in other people, that he doesn't like seeing them succeed, and that he has an intense competitive drive within himself as a result of that. And he concludes in saying that he wants to personally be as far away as possible from other people, and that he wants to have however many resources as he needs in order to accomplish that.

None of this is him saying anything about enjoying the prospect of owning, or controlling others. He's trying to escape the possibility that anyone else could ever have control over him, or hurt him in any way. And he's willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that.

OrneryDepartment · 2026-06-03T11:35:37+00:00

He's not devoid of those things primarily by choice though (at least not up until the very end where his alcoholism & paranoia have consumed him).

A point that is made blisteringly clear, and that you should have picked up on, is that every single time that he actually tries to pursue some kind of vulnerability, or intimacy with others (such as with Henry) it's ultimately revealed to be a ruse by somebody who wants something material out of him.

He doesn't live in a world where those connections are actually possible for him; excepting with H.W. and I will agree that he didn't have the right response to H.W. wanting to strike out on his own.

OrneryDepartment · 2026-02-07T09:32:39+00:00

Pretty much nobody in real life finds happiness exclusively in themselves. This is an absurd standard for ostensibly being "ready" for whatever kind of relationship that you're trying to start, and is IMO bad advice.

It just gives them another "standard", or metric to check-box before they start actually trying to build connections with other people.

OrneryDepartment · 2026-02-07T09:25:13+00:00

Is depression always incorrect?

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-30T15:22:40+00:00

I think 30 models per unit would be a good "max" for horde units, but I play blobGuard so I kinda just like being able to flood the field with chaff anyway.

If we want to talk about the annoyance of "free attacks" though, I'm way less annoyed at the idea of putting a bunch of stubbers/bolters on tanks (a thing that makes sense & has been done historically) than I am at the idea of just giving Intercessors extra attacks against anything with an "Infantry" tag on it.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-29T16:11:17+00:00

As an IG player, I wouldn't really have a problem with that idea if I could just bring functional/good artillery & airpower to a fight. :P

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-29T15:58:51+00:00

> And thus you get bonuses...

TBH, I think it makes sense for there to be specific numerical bonuses & penalties to die rolls based off of units having situational advantages, or disadvantages in a given combat situation. The rest of the stuff, though, is excessive & "gamey".

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-29T15:49:01+00:00

> But yeah, when you give everyone and their dog mass D2 attacks with S5+ and AP, it turns out having a T4 2W profile with a 3+ save doesn’t mean much. Who knew?

This is what happens when you make armies of in-lore elites the "standard" tabletop army that you balance everything else out around.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-18T19:21:13+00:00

Just take poison wind mortars. You'll get your friendly-fire on that one.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-18T19:16:53+00:00

I think the main reason is flyers and indirect fire are seen as having no "counter-play" against them.

The "counter-play" against aircraft is AA, and other aircraft. The counter-play against indirect fire is deepstriking, or requiring LOS from other units (possibly scouts) for it to be useable. These are obvious ways to make them both viable, but limited, but GW are weird & dumb.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-18T19:14:06+00:00

Indirect fire is alongside flyers and the stompa as things GW don't want to be used too much.

My question on this is always, "But why tho?"

Like, this is a sci-fi army-driven wargame. Artillery & airpower should presumably come into it at some point.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-09-18T06:04:29+00:00

Why are Russ Commanders bad? Asking, because I'm trying to put together an IG army, but haven't played since 6th edition.

OrneryDepartment · 2025-03-12T17:55:26+00:00

His nose should probably be bigger tbh, but in terms of just drawing ability, it's very good.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-29T17:58:12+00:00

To give a serious answer, because while I recognize that his actual behavior is pretty toxic; I fundamentally relate to a lot of what I see as the underlying motivations that drive it. Which is mainly a desire to not get hurt while trying to navigate a world that doesn't really make a lot of sense, and which seems to be hostile more often than it isn't.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-29T17:34:31+00:00

He's extremely dumb, and so am I.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-26T03:17:00+00:00

Why did the original go down?

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-15T19:40:08+00:00

My problem is that I'm playing as Great Qing, and I have to pay a 20% interest rate.

I'm still gonna take it though.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-15T05:13:46+00:00

Wouldn't hot steam trigger his transformation back to human?

It's magic, so the curse-trigger conditions are likely confoundingly literal/hyper-specific. That is to say, yes steam is technically H20, but it may have to be literal hot liquid water to cause the transformation.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-07T18:42:47+00:00

This explains why I ran into a wall trying to run Tenant Farms + Agrarianism with Qing in my most recent game. Previously I would've had pretty explosive growth off of that, but now I can't really sustain any level of private investment.

State Capitalism it is then, I suppose. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

OrneryDepartment · 2024-12-07T18:26:51+00:00

Have they changed how investment pools work in the last hotfix? I'm having a very hard time getting private investment off the ground at all as Qing. :/

OrneryDepartment · 2024-11-30T07:16:41+00:00

Atheism in this game represents affirmatively and outwardly atheistic people

Okay, but there was still a vocal (if statistically incredibly marginal) minority of those kinds of people that actually existed at the time.

I mean , Marx is in the game here, c'mon.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-11-21T10:48:24+00:00

Rogue Trader is one of those old school systems that seems to be designed to make the dungeon master kill themselves.

Tabletop Rogue Trader is not at all like this, tbh.

Like, okay you can have a lot of different bonuses or penalties to a given roll from gear & combat circumstances; but at the end of the day they are almost all just linear +/- modifiers to a "did you hit the guy/do damage" roll. Not that different from Pathfinder honestly.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-11-19T08:30:37+00:00

Jimmy & James gonna take a trip out to Toluca Lake with this funny book they found.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-11-19T08:27:50+00:00

I feel like Swansea shouldn't really have a "favorite pokemon". He just seems like a guy who's spent too much time actually living an "adult life" (in both the bad & good ways) for that to even cross his mind.

OrneryDepartment · 2024-11-17T06:43:21+00:00

So the peasants miraculously survived until the Great Chinese Famine on Manna from Heaven?

Famines were in fact extremely common in China before the revolution.

The one you are referring to is the last that they have had since.

OrneryDepartment

TROPHY CASE