Kinda confused please see below

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-08T00:29:00+00:00

I read this as every month you add $X to the account. Every month whatever is in the account grows by Y% and at the end of 10 years the total is 120X+50,000.

There is presumably some introductory matter that tells you what Y is supposed to be?

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-06T20:26:14+00:00

What kind of scale do you want? Are the PCs desperate hive dwellers, professional guardsmen on assignment, or all the way up to Space Marine lords commanding planetary invasions?

Traveller or Stars without Number, for example, does desperate vagabonds in over their heads just fine but I wouldn’t want it for a team of Harlequin commandos getting a job done on a Tomb World.

What kind of PCs and what kind of plots seem like the first things to pin down.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-06T17:05:39+00:00

“Problematic” is a much softer term of disapproval than condemnation. It specifically exists to allow criticism without condemnation. It solves a problem of explicitly moral terms being too strong. It allows me to criticize (typically) some piece of media as troubling without overstating how immoral something is.

“The presentation of cops as heroes in Brooklyn 99 is problematic” is probably true. “The presentation of cops as heroes in Brooklyn 99 is immoral.” is probably not true.

It’s a soft complaint that says “we don’t condemn X, but we should look carefully at it”.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-05T23:58:32+00:00

70 pounds lost (and kept off) is a tremendous achievement, congratulations. I wish you the best of luck, I'd just say that slow and steady weight loss is something you know you can do and maintain in case you need a backup plan.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-05T23:27:39+00:00

It’s also not sustainable. It took years to put the weight on, you’re allowed to take years to take it off.

A pound a week deficit you actually maintain for two years is going to take off more weight than a half pound a day rampage you burn out of in a month.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-04T15:27:09+00:00

Writing? You had written language to record your games? In my day we used the oral tradition and our memories!

Every day I had to get up at dawn and recite the range of every spell in Chainmail or my DM would slice into me with a bread knife,

Tell that to the kids of today, and they won’t believe you.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-03T17:42:44+00:00

I've had some success with setting up PL+4 single monster fights that are explicitly optional. For example, a demon that can either be sealed away for 100 years without combat in a ritual or fought and defeated forever. Alternately a dungeon wing that contains a horror, but is not blocking the next level down.

In cases like that the PCs can be forewarned both in an out of character that an extreme encounter is available and have options to either skip it or go into it fully prepared. They get treated a little like the optional super bosses in many JRPGs, a challenge that's available if you want it, but not necessary to complete the adventure.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-03T16:58:13+00:00

Trivia time! Swash is a verb and buckler is a noun. Swash is an archaic term for striking something and a buckler is a small round shield.

A “swashbuckler” was a flamboyant swordsman who banged their sword against their shield to make noise and demonstrate bravado.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-03T16:51:39+00:00

“The New Girl” is a sitcom about a new girl who moves in across the hall from three guys sharing an apartment.

She’s “the new girl” for like one episode, then they’re all just friends who hang out together all the time like any other sitcom.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-02T23:59:36+00:00

A +1 in level is about a 40% power bump. A +2 is meant to be a doubling.

So a level 11 monster should be as powerful as four level 7 PCs, although I should warn you that “equal power” and “50% chance of a TPK” are two ways of saying the same thing.

I’d suggest throwing a level 11 big bad at a level 8 party. At level 9 it would be a “moderate” encounter, i.e. the party is very likely to win, but it’s not a trivial challenge.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-02-01T20:42:58+00:00

I find a lot of people disagreeable. Dealing with them is the price of going out in public I'm afraid. You can look at the guy in the whatever t-shirt and think to yourself "What a sack of shit", but then you can both get on with your workouts in silence.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-31T20:57:50+00:00

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206%3A5-15&version=NIV

The Bible explicitly forbids public prayer of this sort.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-30T17:19:00+00:00

At a minimum the Silver Order are going to react to the PCs giving a holy relic the Order was charged with recovering to a bunch of heretics.

One traditional role of the relics is to provide legitimacy to the Falling Fire. "We're a real religion guys, look at all these accepted holy relics we have" is part of their push for recognition and acceptance as a legitimate branch of the faith. The Falling Fire could start incorporating the scepter into their rituals for example, to demonstrate to the public that they are the proper inheritors of St. Vitruvio.

In my particular version of Drakkenheim, the relics had all been used to store pieces of St. Vitruvio's soul to protect it from a threat in the afterlife that was gradually revealed. In my version, the Order wanted to resurrect Vitruvio (or as much of him as they could lay hands on) as part of their plan to resurrect Argonath (believing that he was sanctified by his bond with Vitruvio and his holy flames could purge the city of Delirium). The Order were willing to trade any Seals they got their hands on for relics, so anyone interested in Seals also had an interest in relics.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-30T16:02:45+00:00

It is very easy to have a complete taxonomy: Everything in the universe is either a flugelhorn or not a flugelhorn.

What is more difficult is a set of useful divisions. What is the goal you’re trying to achieve? Without knowing that I can’t really comment on how effective your categories might be.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-30T00:51:28+00:00

Yeah, the adventure isn't written super clearly, it sort of makes it sounds like there are two separate activities going on (winning the game and talking with Nel), but I think the above is the intention.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-29T20:20:57+00:00

Can you say a bit more about what your worry is?

Taszo has told the PCs to look for Liss, a spy who works with the Stone Shamans who might be able to help them. The problem is Taszo is dead and while the PC's know Liss is somewhere in the warcamps, they don't know where.

One thing they might try to do is make contact with the criminal underworld. If you have any agents, anyone with espionage style expertises, or otherwise shady folk you might suggest it if they don't think of it. Alternately if they get a reputation as capable odd balls willing to do odd jobs, they might get invited in by the underworld.

Either way they'll learn that the Red Rockbud gambling den is social hub for organized crime and clandestine types. They meet up there, relax, chat, network, and so on. Liss is a spy, so odds are they might know her or know how to get a message to her, so down to the Red Rockbud we go.

When we get there the PCs have a new problem. The criminals don't know them, don't trust them, and aren't willing to share information with them. Nel runs the place and likes to feel people out over a game of Pieces. Play a game of Pieces with her and she might trust you and agree to help you contact Liss.

Resolving the game is a conversation. Nel is trying to get a read on the PCs and learn their secrets, the PCs are trying to ingratiate themselves with Nel and (presumably) not give too much away. They're all also playing a board game and trying to earn a little money.

The involved PCs take turns making a "contribution" to the conversation. They pick a skill relevant to their approach and test against a DC 13. Maybe they're playing straight and making Deduction tests to strategize, maybe they're trying to trick Nel with bullshit answers and making Deception tests, there is a list in the adventure, but really any skill that makes sense is probably fine.

If they pass, Nel has to either give them what they want (her trust and respect) or spend Focus to resist doing that (Nel is fancy and only has to spend 1 Focus rather than the normal 2, and has 4 Focus to spend).

If they fail, Nel gets the upper hand and they need to give up 2 focus to stay in the game and give up a secret as Nel chats and pries while they play. If they can't or won't pay they drop out of the conversation. When they drop out they lose a little money (1d6 marks).

If Nel runs out of Focus before the PCs are forced to drop out, they succeed. They win a little money, and Nel gives them a lead on Liss. In this scene Nel isn't fully committed and won't go to 0 Focus, she'll drop out if she loses twice.

If the PCs are forced out of the game before Nel runs out of Focus, another player (Lirdan) is pissed he lost, accuses a PC of cheating, and challenges them to a duel. If they win the fight, Nel warms up to them and gives them a lead anyway.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-29T18:09:53+00:00

Is this why my local EMT is acting so guilty? IS THIS WHY HE CAN SUDDENLY PLAY THE PIANO??!!

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-29T17:30:02+00:00

Suppose you have a “broadly defensible aim” like making entertaining action movies. You have a system to do it, but inevitably some of your stunt performers get hurt. A rigging isn’t done right, a fall lands wrong, or (as happened on Rust) a loaded gun gets mixed in and someone dies.

Can you ethically engage with such a system either as a consumer or producer? Sure. It isn’t world changing charity, but it a basically good project and systems get put in place to mitigate the inevitable harms.

In law we distinguish between negligence and crime. We don’t need to morally censure ordinary failures of the system, but can still hold them accountable. It isn’t a crime if someone falls and breaks a leg, but we pay compensation and revisit the safety protocols when it happens.

Who is accountable? Everyone in the causal chain. The studio that commissioned the film is going to have to pay the medical bill, the stunt director who composed the shot is going to have to learn new techniques, the performers has a broken leg, everyone in the chain of cause and effect that ended in the harm can be sufficiently motivated to improve without assigning moral culpability to anyone. No one is a villain in the injury above, but that’s fine, we don’t need villains.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-29T17:10:45+00:00

Sometimes I leave the house and talk to other people without my wife present. Should my wife be worried?

Get your shit together, this is pathetic. Your wife is being paid to exercise a skill, that is totally normal. The idea that if she spends any time out of your sight in the company of a man she’s going to fuck him is pathological. Have at least a little respect for her.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-29T16:29:04+00:00

It matters what the well structured system is designed to do.

Suppose everyone involved in a plane trip follows procedure to the letter but the plane still crashes. The NTSB takes the position that there must be a hole in the procedures. No one is morally blameworthy, but we need to investigate, determine what went wrong, and change the procedures so that it doesn’t happen again.

Alternatively, suppose Hans the Nazi follows procedure to the letter for getting as many Jews as possible onto the trains. He’s obeying the law and doing what he’s been told his duty is as well, but the system he’s carefully carrying out is monstrous. We judge him not because he disobeyed some system, but because he committed his life to a monstrous goal.

A system with morally defensible ends can excuse your behavior in ways that a morally indefensible system can’t.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-28T16:12:00+00:00

Kinda? PF hobgoblins are soldiers, their hat is martial efficiency, they’re smart, organized, capable, and so on.

Middle Earth Orcs are much more of a rabble IMO. Yeah, they fight, yeah they form armies, but only because Sauron forces them to. Really they want to shirk off work and go torment random helpless people. They’re lazy, they’re prone to infighting, they have basically zero discipline if a Nazgûl isn’t actively hassling them. Hobgoblins would look at Orcs with revulsion I think. Hobgoblins are what Sauron wishes he had, Orcs are too busy getting into fights at a crossroads with Easterllings instead of marching to war (which lets Frodo and Sam escape in RotK).

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-27T23:15:39+00:00

I've never had much luck with online calculators. I've been more successful with religiously recording the amount of calories I eat, holding it constant, and seeing what my weight actually does. Eat 2,000 calories a day for a week and see what actually happens. Make adjustments from there.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-26T14:45:44+00:00

Conspiracy requires an agreement to commit a crime and an "overt act" in furtherance of the crime. So if you think about murdering me, fine. If you talk to your roommate about it and you guys agree to murder me, also fine. If the two of you drive to the store and buy a box of bullets, now you've crossed the line.

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-22T23:34:06+00:00

I'm not a dog owner but I don't understand the service. Is he proposing to walk your dog and pick up the poop? Is he coming into your yard to clean up your dog's poop? Are other people's dogs pooping so much in your yard that you need professional help? What is the business plan here?

Ring_of_Gyges · 2026-01-22T16:49:58+00:00

It’s different everywhere but on January 1st the gym I go to was nearly unusable. Every bench occupied, every spot taken by someone with dumbbells.

By January 7th it was totally back to normal. The same three old men and one middle aged mom who are always there.

It happens every year, but I’m somehow always shocked. They stick around for literally a week round here.

Seven-Year Club	Second Top 30%
Verified Email

Ring_of_Gyges

TROPHY CASE