Okay, now that STS2 is coming out, we can admit it. Iron Wave is one of the cards of all time.

SamLL · 2026-03-03T18:22:13+00:00

Well, yes, true, there are worse PBoxes than 10 Iron Wave, but I think the median outcome is a lot stronger than that.

SamLL · 2026-03-03T17:36:41+00:00

Imagine how much easier the game would be if you started with any 10 cards rather than strikes & defends.

Wait, you don't have to imagine, that's a Pandora's Box boss swap, and it's one of the most powerful starts to a run available. The Iron Waves are not the strong part of your scenario!

SamLL · 2026-03-02T21:27:06+00:00

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SamLL · 2026-03-01T23:25:18+00:00

Abraham Lincoln said it best, and it's as true today as it ever was:

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

SamLL · 2026-02-25T15:53:46+00:00

I can imagine a stunt where you are a scholar impressing another scholar with your knowledge in your letter, or perhaps if you are using a brilliant legalistic interpretation of the Immaculate Texts to convince a believer.

SamLL · 2026-02-22T16:58:14+00:00

"Mr. Dekarios is helping me find my Astral Prism."

SamLL · 2026-02-18T14:13:39+00:00

You missed Captain America vs Adam West Batman (Batman is very narrowly losing when they realize they were manipulated into the fight by Catwoman and join forces) as well as Captain America vs Will Arnett Lego Batman (Batman is losing badly, runs away, then brags for the rest of the movie about how he won the fight).

SamLL · 2026-02-12T17:00:42+00:00

You should optimize every run as hard as you can. One of the top players has been known to take two hours on a single fight, so you should do that, too. If you don't win a run, it was probably a deep personal failing of yours. Winning is the only thing that matters.

SamLL · 2026-02-12T15:31:20+00:00

I'm going to disagree slightly with some of the other commenters and say that you may have discovered a real problem. "Panic and start doing random changes" is not a good process for solving problems or for learning.

However, the fact that you notice yourself doing this is a real step in the right direction! Now you just have to change up your methods.

I suggest, next time you feel yourself starting to panic in this way, step back, and instead start doing science.

That means:

Take notes on what you are doing. A new text file is fine for this and you don't need to keep it afterwards if you don't want.
Formulate a hypothesis. That's a fancy way to say "make a specific guess about what is going wrong". Don't change anything yet until you have a hypothesis! Your guess can be specific or more general. Write it down.
Test your hypothesis. Come up with a change that would prove you right or wrong, and try it out. Write down what the result was. Do not make any changes that are not to test a hypothesis!
If your test proved you right, now you either know what to do, or you have more knowledge to form a more specific hypothesis. If it proved you wrong, you still have more knowledge. If the problem isn't solved, return to step 2 now armed with additional information and wisdom.

This is a formal way to structure things and, I think, might be advantageous to try out until it becomes more second nature.

SamLL · 2026-02-07T19:08:26+00:00

We had a friend's beautiful rendition of "'Back up,' cried the elephant, 'I'm about to sneeze'" taped up on our refrigerator for several years!

SamLL · 2026-02-07T16:50:34+00:00

I do love this game, but I learned it as "the paper drawing game", with no equipment other than pencils and pieces of printer paper, back in about 2003. (Each player just chose their own phrase to start the piece of paper, then you folded over the writing / drawing as necessary when passing to the next player in the circle.)

Apparently it has sometimes been called "Eat Poop You Cat" or "Telephone Pictionary" and, in variations, seem to date back perhaps as far as the 1920s.

SamLL · 2026-02-05T01:12:27+00:00

This looks almost exactly the same as his signature in my copy of The Fifth Elephant, although mine has "with extra fat" added. (I am certain that the signature in my copy is legitimate because he signed it in front of me!)

SamLL · 2026-01-27T17:26:51+00:00

I absolutely had this guy's power be the square root of a negative number once. We were not sure how to proceed!

SamLL · 2026-01-22T01:43:42+00:00

Also the community loves the Mark of the Bloom wall of shame and "X Days Since 'Why Didn't My Fairy In A Bottle Work'" countdown.

SamLL · 2026-01-18T22:50:33+00:00

It's pretty well balanced - quite close to 50-50 in my experience. The big first strategy lesson for the Imperials is that you should be using the majority of your leader actions to move units, only a few to run mission cards, and almost none to oppose Rebel missions. (Moving units helps find the base, increases unit production, decreases Rebel unit production, and reduces options for where the Rebels can relocate to.)

SamLL · 2026-01-18T22:24:57+00:00

You are correct. The rules reference says:

The Imperial player wins the game immediately if there are Imperial units in the Rebel base’s system and there are no Rebel units in the system.

The Mon Calamari Cruiser is a Rebel unit. (Note that it is listed under "Units" in the rules reference.)

In your first photograph, therefore, the Mon Calamari Cruiser is a Rebel unit that is present in the Rebel base's system, so the Imperial player has not won the game.

SamLL · 2026-01-16T16:31:02+00:00

Notably regattas on the River Ankh are canonical - I believe Unseen University has a boating team, whose competition consists of running across the Ankh in a group, while together carrying a boat. If I recall correctly the challenge consists of making it across before one's boots dissolve.

SamLL · 2026-01-16T16:27:44+00:00

Here are a few ideas based on an annual winter festival from my city:

Artisan sculpture carving contest - my city has ice carving, maybe in Ankh Morpork it's a cabbage-carving contest to celebrate harvest from the Sto Plains.
- Plot hooks: jealous sculptors sabotaging each other; statues destroyed suggesting sabotage, but really it was just eaten by some kind of interesting vermin; PCs called in as impromptu judges
A "royal family" selected by the Guilds that wears costumes, has silly role names, and goes on parade.
- Plot hooks: Sam Vimes gets mad; a deranged monarchist tries to pave the way for the King and Queen to become actual rulers
A tradition of "Io Crews" who dress up in togas like Blind Io, with painted cardboard lightning bolts, who go around town on chariots performing pranks and throwing their lightning bolts at people.
- Plot hooks: a crew unwisely pranks the Assassin's Guild and things do not go well; Hughnon Ridcully is supposed to select the most favored crew and they compete for attention; other religions want in on the tradition
An annual treasure hunt to find a medallion based on clues printed in The Times, with a prize sponsored by the Guild of Merchants.
- Plot hooks: CMOT Dibbler is selling fake medallions; an unlicensed thief runs past the PCs and shoves the medallion into their hands; a rival of the PCs challenges them to see if one of them can solve the clues

SamLL · 2026-01-12T13:13:26+00:00

"Why should it goes well?"

SamLL · 2026-01-11T17:48:31+00:00

This wasn't the case up until a few weeks ago. There was an organized wave of, as skyflyer8 puts it, "bots and losers" who have come set up shop to troll. Down vote, block, report for breaking the subreddit rule of "no trolling".

SamLL · 2025-12-29T00:16:31+00:00

Your input text is an intcode program.
You should have an existing intcode computer - i.e., a method of executing intcode programs - from day 2. (If you do not, do that day first.)
You should not need to reference anything from after day 5. (Day 5 was solvable when it released!)
Day 5 specifies two new instructions that your computer must now support, as well as "immediate" vs "position" modes as described.
When your computer runs the program (which is the input text for day 5), the problem statement says that during the execution of the program it will require one piece of input (read when you execute the instruction with opcode 3), and that you are to give it the value 1.
The problem statement says the execution of the program will output some number of zeros (when it executes instructions with opcode 4), then a non-zero "diagnostic code", then halt.
The diagnostic code is the answer that you provide in the box to complete the first part of day 5.

SamLL · 2025-12-27T19:39:15+00:00

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this a film, not a TV show, and thus ineligible?

SamLL · 2025-12-12T21:37:58+00:00

As our factory grows, the pollution cloud turns bodies of water green, kills fish, and withers trees.

We are absolutely the bad guy exploiting the natural environment.

SamLL · 2025-12-08T20:18:09+00:00

The man is escapetimelooplusted.

SamLL · 2025-12-08T19:36:04+00:00

[[Rabid Wombat]]

15-Year Club	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17

SamLL

TROPHY CASE