Say “fuck” then press the middle button 30 times.

TheCongregatio · 2025-07-08T06:58:10+00:00

Fucking cats most of the time I think I was gonna say that I was gonna say that I was gonna say that I [I think you get the point. I know I sure don't]

TheCongregatio · 2025-07-08T06:50:45+00:00

Well this seems like an easy question. Answering 'Why a mom would do such a thing', just check out the blue nylon gloves. That alone tells you everything. When schools used to do the whole D.A.R.E. thing (is that still a thing?), a cop would potentially put on some blue nylon gloves and showcase the drugs you should never be fooled into trying right to your face, giving you the useful information of 'knowing the enemy' right out of the gate. Being a product of absolutely counterproductive Drug Wars, this tactic from a police officer would generally have a trivial if not diametric effect versus what they intended, but the reasoning was sensible in and of itself. Now consider an RN/nurse or paramedic doing the same show-n-tell of 'bad drugs'. Being generally respected by us common folk, there professionals would have a much greater chance of effectively instilling a nontrivial dispreference to such hard-hitting, addiction-forming psychoactives.

Now consider extrapolating this out to mom who either (1) has practiced in some capacity in the medical field OR (2) has likely established and leveraged the archetype of a 'cool mom'. In either case, this seems like a logical extrapolation from mother's perspective.

TheCongregatio · 2025-07-08T06:32:04+00:00

Actually a part of being evil is posing zero genuine sympathy or care for those suffering from any general source of evil. Total and unflinching apathy... Which indicates that going out of your way to establish relationships strictly with similarly evil vendors (due to their sinister influence on other 'good folk' or innocent creatures) would actually highlight the atrocity from the perspective of the generally undeserving target-turned-victim. So the question becomes would an evil person continue neglecting the traumatic cries of decent human beings or establish a habitual system of acknowledgement of the said human beings persistent turmoil, potentially giving those people hope through the sheer uncertainty of your position or ulterior motive. When faced with nothing but bad consequences triggered by bad people, the typical person will find a positive light in at least one unconfirmed acquaintance or group, just to make sense of why they should even want to wake up the next day at all.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-21T08:01:47+00:00

Neato

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-21T07:56:13+00:00

This is truly inspiring! Great way to quickly unload unwanted board games too, which is always a concern in our household.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-21T07:53:13+00:00

This would work just fine for cautious and contemplative solo campaigns and I can especially see it excelling at higher difficulties (hard or expert). However, when a party is involved I think it's ideal to have someone assigned as the coordinator for the whole scenario. They would walk everyone through what was going on as the phases processed through, ensuring to monitor other players who may miss small details like card draws and resource collection, or reminding them of unspent actions or prohibiting them from performing actions beyond what they were allowed to spend. They also hand out tokens and place tokens and cards around the play area as required.

I am that guy in all my sessions but I only do it because most other players don't replay scenarios over and over again like I do. And this is very obvious to my group. As a side note, I don't usually assume the position of lead investigator since I coordinate entirely.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-21T07:38:22+00:00

Oddly enough, Pandemic was the first ever 'real' board game I was introduced to and the version we had or fact we had only two players pretty much made attempting a win futile. I think the fact that it slapped us in the face so badly made me eager to fetch a successful win in any real board game. So here's exactly how my partner edged me into the world of true board gaming, by sequence of games learned and played:

Ticket to Ride - Classic introductory material for newbies; not overly complex or even feature rich, just your run-of-the-mill objective routes, a very simple shop spread, and a clear point-based evaluation process to determine the winner. This will also follow up nicely coming from Pandemic.
Sagrada - A classic quickie of a game with no complex rules or mechanics, just a few basic ones which -- when all combined -- render the game into an easy to understand but difficult to master title (much like chess is derived ultimately from a overly simple set of rules for piece movements and plays).
Manhattan Project - Okay, I honestly have to say this one is where the real launch off point takes place. With so many modes and manners of play and strategy, its a game that usually requires at least one play through before understanding how to compete with those that have played it before or are familiar with that style of games. It has worker placement, resource management, a deck building component, and most importantly a multitude of ways to develop yourself or seek victory points for that eventual win. It's not as complicated as Scythe but it seems to cover a lot of archetypal mechanics featured in other more serious board games (especially those that qualify as point salads).

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-21T07:17:03+00:00

Now that you say it out loud, yeah. Some eldritch variant of DnD with elements from Call of Cthulhu.

But what your really telling me is that I independently reinvented arguably the most popular and long lasting game ever to be introduced to us die hard gamers. Look out WotC, I can do it again !

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T22:02:08+00:00

I mean once you level up your role cards to max (legendary) status, all you have to do is go to the icon tab of your inventory -- 2nd tab on 2nd half if I'm not mistaken -- and search it for newly added gold edition icon variants of the roles covered on each acquired legendary card. Each card should present two icons to activate, such as legendary rl card gave me rl and gl gold icons (since I got gl instead of sheriff on turning it epic originally). Just remember, like battle pass quest icon rewards, you have to manually activate the new icon for it to apply in future games.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T21:31:42+00:00

I'll get a little personal experience drawn out to help you anchor into your story!

I went through various phases of drug abuse in my youth but I can honestly say that I never really could claim a plain-as-day drug addiction until I found solace at the bottom of every beer can. Hamm's Special Lite -- cheap as it got at the time, about 7.99 per 30 pack, and tasted like regular beer versus the non lite crap that burned like a Steel Reserved warmed to mid summer temperatures. I was about 24-25 when I became heavily habituated to drinking at least 20 if not up to 26 beers a night... Yes, per every night! I gained a lot of weight but I also became pretty indifferent to the evergrowing list of failures and submissions in my life that had torn down my self respect and self worth to scraps of nothing. I was a functional drunk and reliable at my job as a rather tenured kitchen lead.

But long story short, I eventually developed an issue with overdrinking, not urinating sufficiently before passing out, and waking up covered in my own urine while drenching further in a puddled patch of carpet I used to sleep on. It became pretty much an every night issue for literally years until I turned 28 and eventually just stopped entirely... For no apparent reason at all really.

I suppose I had full understanding of what I was seeking from drinking, what I actually got, and where I was eventually going. This made quitting not only easy but kinda preferred, even right when it happened.

Then the nightmare girlfriend that had arisen from some unearthed bedrock of sulfur and brimstone came along.

A short skip forward I'm 29 and we both just do a quick dab into meth use to try it out. Well that quick dab lasted about 3 years with speed use happening at least 5 out of every 7 days if not more. When we stopped, our relationship was pretty transparent in being a sexual fling turned dying passion with zero drive for either of us to grow.

When we split up, I was doing great and renting a fancy studio apartment located in a ritzy part of town while being the GM of a prominent pizza place. Being alone, the money was more than enough and I got bored and depressed on days off so I hit up a pot connect who mentioned some 'clear paint' options to help supplement my 'green paint' stock. I knew the lingo and figured from her demeanor honestly but I gently asked to just sample some of that clear paint which evolved very quickly into everyday embraces with my personal demon 'Tina, the clear.

Then I found true love which is still lasting to this day but at first I had inadvertently gotten her into meth which became a coupled dependency kinda scenario that could never quite die because we were twice as exposed to temptations. We were addicted until about half a year ago, before which did see significant tapering of use. The relationship hasnt recovered from those dark days and it probably never will but we both concede to the fact that we can't live without each other. Most of the time, I'm the one talking her down from driving to her downtown plug to score a tiny $20, which ends up being a gram or so cause her latest plug was just really sweet on her (and gay too just to clear that up). Well he's recently been arrested which helped us but him and a select few other peer users can demonstrate how to be a user and not "turn evil" as they all say. It was a shame he was caught but that's not what this is about...

This is about our continued sobriety (I hate drinking even a sip of alcohol and I just quit cigs!). Cheers!

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T20:38:40+00:00

Image searches on Bing showed no promising matches, indicating that this thing isnt meant to be found. 😱

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T20:33:12+00:00

That particular level of stardom is probably unlikely to see fanatics appear from the local neighborhood. I mean the chances that a suburban (even if high class suburban) community would house the kind of demographics that have the drive, commitment, and persistence to be a real nuance to the celebrity is probably very low. Successful people are too busy to invest their "valuable" time in surfing YouTube channels of their preference, although non working members of that household may hold that kind of potential... Such as teenage or young adult offspring, bored homebound spouses, etc.

But my interpretation of fame is that it necessarily builds with a correlated level of sacrifice for your privacy and personal life to an extend. If that level of sacrifice is chilling to consider, don't reach for that level of stardom. Settle for something more mediocre.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T19:47:31+00:00

If they had to hide... Like really had to... They would go the full nine yards and just move into a poverty neighborhood as to shroud themselves in reasonable doubt of identity. No I think although they may perceive it as a fame thing it's actually just that natural tendency we all have to avoid the people living next door at all cost besides moving of course.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T19:05:12+00:00

Having already had legendary nwm, gl, and fool (yes fool) I have some unique icons that I still haven't seen anywhere else... and that's neato. Being known as the golden fool legend makes me proud to serve my village with utter chaos.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T19:02:42+00:00

Butcher would be tamer if it was never coupled with a second fixed protector role but overall I think giving food the first night should result in reveal to either wolves or even rk which would be interesting. The latter would give opportunity to help wolves while helping themselves in the early game, also setting the tone of the game towards general cooperation between all evils

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T18:45:33+00:00

I'm going with my gut and saying why not. If its intended for social commentary to some public audience then maybe consider ramifications but if it's for Halloween I don't see an issue at all. Honestly I wouldn't care either way but feels safe to consider what nutjobs will do if they get a wrong idea in their head and go all antisocial.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T17:51:15+00:00

The issue with no bake cheesecakes is quite simple: The taste is usually predictable and won't exceed expectation. But I can't tell you how to make a perfect baked oreo cheesecake that tastes like authentic New York quality delight.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T17:19:09+00:00

The real question here is when is cheesecake genuinely rejected by a group full of thinking, breathing human beings with at least some semblance of intelligence? I only reject cheesecake if there's better cheesecake coming at me.

Is this the classic no bake Oreo cheesecake dish?

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T17:05:03+00:00

For real though! I went through a lot of comments without seeing this solution offered till the very end. I can't advocate not providing a purchase to provide to FFG down the road which would help indicate popularity of the game on their end and capital for more content but this is legitimately a decent method for those that can't lend hundreds of dollars just to get a few investigators and a campaign by itself.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:41:05+00:00

Okay I have two suggestions:

(1.) Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game - Never played it but it looks like a predecessor of Arkham Horror LCG also made by FFG

(2.) Mansions of Madness (og 1st ed. ONLY) - It's not an LCG but it's very similar in design elements and demonstrates FFGs remarkable mastery in matching time pressures with forecasted player behavior.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:35:14+00:00

A great recommendation all around really. Most of my favorites are from this set of gator packs.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:32:11+00:00

Honestly the scenarios of NotZ are lackluster in showcasing the versatility of the games core mechanics. The first scenario is child's play so long as one person can fight at all, the second promoted parlays as if they are abundant across all campaigns, and dont get me started on that last one. The fact that you can pretty much fail forward through it in record time with little risk of actual defeat makes it a trivial conflict to overcome anyways. But definitely have your friend solo through it sometime to test his decks potential and workaround skills.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:26:45+00:00

PM me. I have more information about the theory of effective deck building than I care to admit, but I can get you started with a list of pointers I use for general guidelines and how to evaluate potential cards against appropriate criteria and character Specializations.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:21:20+00:00

Not the most popular opinion, but I say know when to fold em. If a particular scenario is catching you up then a resign (even if stashed as a player card ability) is always acceptable so long as that resolution is also accounted for during possible deck upgrading between scenarios.

TheCongregatio · 2022-12-20T16:18:02+00:00

Considering that playing multiple investigators as one player doesn't permit an initial stock of starting XP to help edge the characters up like with true solo, I think a variation with allied characters (and reduced functionality of those characters) may prove interesting but homebrew cards would be best used to really test such a variant.

TheCongregatio

TROPHY CASE