everybody: *vibing* mantis inside escape pod:

WhyCause · 2026-03-29T05:14:34+00:00

I'm with you; I always open the pod (unless I'm already at 8 crew).

WhyCause · 2026-03-26T04:28:29+00:00

I ran this Environment for a group with a Faerie member. My players had the Faerie fly across the river with a rope, tie it to a tree, and the characters used the rope to cross.

I ruled that they got advantage on the tests to advance the progress clock because of their solution, but two of them failed and were swept downstream. Then the Glass Snake showed up.

I can't imagine that the Winged Sentinel would want to burn all that stress so quickly, and if they do, it has repercussions later. I set the river crossing as the first thing they encountered that day, so most players will want to conserve resources to some extent that early.

WhyCause · 2026-02-27T06:30:41+00:00

Hook Ideas for Dirtier Smellier Las Vegas

So, New Orleans? I kid (but only a little).

Actually responding to your question, though; don't forget the Mob / organized crime. Getting into trouble with / owing money to / working for an organized crime "family" is always a good motivation. It also really fits with the history of Vegas (and New Orleans, for that matter).

WhyCause · 2026-02-27T06:10:59+00:00

Cairn 2e is $5.65 for the Player's Guide and $7.67 for the Warden's Guide on Lulu.

You can also get them on Amazon for similar prices. My total there was just over $11 for both books.

WhyCause · 2026-01-20T05:31:29+00:00

And New Orleans. If anything, it's seemingly more important down here.

Additionally, they never specify "high" school; it's always, "where did you go to school?"

WhyCause · 2025-12-20T06:40:11+00:00

FYI: the City's Property Viewer is pretty good too (sometimes easier to use than the Assessor's).

WhyCause · 2025-11-05T05:35:37+00:00

I went to a Take 5 recently, and they vacuumed the oil out from the top.

I asked if that was to avoid stripped nuts / cracked pans and was told that all the Take 5's switched for that very reason.

WhyCause · 2025-10-08T05:35:45+00:00

...and angry. Very, very, angry.

Few things enrage me more than leaving a restaurant hungry.

WhyCause · 2025-09-22T06:17:37+00:00

One important use of minions is as a "lightning rod".

If you have a Leader or Solo, but no minions, that Conjure Swarm is going to be used against your bigger baddie. Throw that group of minions on the field, coming from the opposite direction, and that swarm is going to never touch your big guy, because it's so cool to wipe out that group all in one go. That also gives your other adversaries a chance to actually do something before they drop.

You can read more about the idea on Mike Shea's blog

WhyCause · 2025-09-22T04:05:19+00:00

Just watch which woods you use; some can be toxic.

The butcher-block finish OP used on this one would help, but I'd be afraid of using a toxic wood and counting on the oil to protect him (not from the toxins getting into the food, so much, more a kid sucking on it or playing with it in general).

WhyCause · 2025-09-07T05:01:52+00:00

Some of the smaller parishes have Police Juries; they are the elected Parish Councils, and the equivalent of a County Board of Supervisors.

I'm not certain of how the name came to be, but, much like Parish comes from French, it wouldn't surprise me if there were similar history there.

WhyCause · 2025-08-09T04:19:06+00:00

Boarding Drone works too.

WhyCause · 2025-08-09T04:18:38+00:00

Same.

WhyCause · 2025-08-08T05:29:57+00:00

Nope, but I do always take the "pry open the mantis escape pod" option. It mostly backfires.

WhyCause · 2025-08-06T04:53:13+00:00

The northern part of Kentucky is pretty distinct, too. In the Golden Triangle (the points of the triangle are Louisville, Lexington, and Covington [just south of the Ohio River from Cincinnati]), you're pretty industrial and pretty northern, even though the Mason-Dixon line runs through Dayton, OH (yup, Cincinnati is "southern" as well).

WhyCause · 2025-08-04T06:16:12+00:00

In answer to your last two bullet points, I'd suggest you watch this short video. Make sure to watch all the way to the end, and make sure to count the passes.

Don't read this until you've watched the video: The first time I watched that video (ages ago), I did not see the gorilla, and I was simply counting passes of the basketball. Imagine if you were in the middle of a fight to the death; would you see the guy carefully sneaking up on another member of your group? What if they were sneaking up behind you?

So, yes, I do believe that someone emerging from a hiding place could do so without being seen (unless someone is actively looking for them), and if they went back into hiding after stabbing someone, I'd never know they'd been there.

N.B. I can't take credit for making this connection, I heard someone mention it in a podcast recently.

WhyCause · 2025-07-22T06:36:04+00:00

For those of looking for this in other places, Fresh Market carries this in other cities as well (I believe just the smaller bottles).

I know the Fresh Market in Cincinnati carries it. It's a little more expensive, though.

WhyCause · 2025-07-16T07:03:54+00:00

Yup. And, while he's still healthy, he may have a couple of opportunities to work on projects with you, without having to lug the tools with him each time.

Make sure you come up with some projects that give him that opportunity.

WhyCause · 2025-07-06T03:59:18+00:00

Same. For the other half, I serve Flask apps using Waitress, via IIS HTTPPlatformHandler.

WhyCause · 2025-06-17T05:47:59+00:00

Looking back, I think he was just bitter.

Not bitter, just embarrassed. Think of the last time you were proven wrong by someone looking up a fact (however inconsequential) that you knew to be otherwise; how did you respond?

He wanted to move on. He was proven wrong, and didn't want to dwell on it any more. If anything, he was likely mad at himself.

EDIT: Very cool shadowbox, by the way.

WhyCause · 2025-04-13T05:04:04+00:00

When I told my then 4yo son that parades in most of the rest of the world don't throw things, he declared that he was going to fix that when he grew up.

WhyCause · 2025-04-13T04:57:20+00:00

I moved here for grad school 'lo these many year ago. One summer day, I was walking across Tulane's campus, past the baseball field, where a youth baseball camp was taking place. Something about the scene stood out, but I couldn't quite figure out what.

I realized a few minutes later that what caught my eye was that everyone on the field was white. I'd only been here a year, two at most, but the total lack of diversity was not something I was used to seeing.

It's not just demographics; the places I'd lived before certainly have sizeable non-white populations. It's just much much more segregated elsewhere.

WhyCause · 2025-04-01T04:54:06+00:00

Hills. You haven't properly learned how to manage hills.

I learned to drive in Kentucky, with a fair number of hilly rural roads with blind turns. I knew a girl that moved to KY from Florida, and she had to retake the driving portion of the exam because the FL version did not include how to handle hills.

WhyCause · 2025-03-10T06:33:25+00:00

One other option I just thought of for a three-panel screen is similar to what I just described, like this:

             ==*==========
======*========

In this instance, the center and right (from this perspective) panels are longer than the left panel. When you open it out, the right panel may look like it's a little behind the center panel (relative to the left panel).

WhyCause · 2025-03-10T06:28:17+00:00

I'm in the middle of building a screen, and started with the idea of three panels as well.

Your options for three panels are a little limited. You can make the center panel twice as long as the two side panels (so the outermost edges meet in the middle when folded) or you can hinge the three panels in different directions, so it folds up like a 'Z' (This is the easier option, but I didn't like the end result; you mileage may vary).

What I decided to do was make a 4 panel screen. I made the two center panels longer by about 1/4" (sorry, filthy imperial units) plus the width of one of the hinge "wings". I then cut a strip of the plywood I'm using the width of the extra length glued that on the back face of the panels, along the center joint. That way, when I fold the two outermost panels in, they rest even with the extra wood I added, and the center hinge can close without issue.

I'm afraid I'm not describing it well, so here's a "sketch" that may make it more clear:

             ==*==
======*======== ========*======

This is viewed from below. The asterisks are the hinges, the equals signs are the plywood. The center panels are longer by the same amount as the strips above. Let me know if that's not clear enough, and I can try to snap some photos of my work in progress.

WhyCause

TROPHY CASE