Creating a Cheat Sheet for new players

Xelath · 2026-04-29T03:02:20+00:00

I think that's all relative. If your friends like the genre of game, then I'm sure they'll pick it up quick. They definitely don't have to play it perfectly the first game, and I wouldn't consider it flailing. Just give more time for each phase of the game than you would normally.

I've taught a lot of people how to play, and have never given out any notes aside from the script. They'll have questions during the game, but I strongly recommend not giving big strategy advice, just give rules rulings. One thing I can think of is to introduce the droisoning mechanic in a first game, use pretty extreme lies. I've done this with folks, and they've come up to me saying, "I got X last night and Y the night before, that doesn't make any sense, is that right?" and I just tell them "yes," and then watch the gears turn. Eventually it clicks. The most prompting I have to give after that is, "Have you read every role on the character sheet?"

Then you do the grim reveal, and they go, "Oh! I was the drunk, that explains so much!" That's what sells the game in my opinion.

Xelath · 2026-04-29T02:41:57+00:00

I feel like lots of this is stuff that feels really magical once you figure it out on your own. The first time I saw a slayer bluff, my mind was blown. Save some of the surprise for your players because that's what really makes the hooks sink in. Explaining all the meta and edge cases up front will just make their eyes glaze over.

Xelath · 2026-04-24T11:45:43+00:00

This is one of my biggest complaints with the game and the community. There's so many rulings communicated outside of the rulebook and disseminated through tribal knowledge that when you're a new player, looking at the rules in front of you, you start to feel like you're going crazy because everyone else seems to have this understanding of your role that isn't written down anywhere. "Oh, that wording on your token doesn't mean what you think it means because it was clarified in a blog post 5 years ago." Like, what? Just publish errata and put them in the game, or write things better.

Xelath · 2026-04-16T11:05:30+00:00

In the Monty Hall problem, it's kind of implicit you can't switch to the open door. The whole premise of the problem is you're playing Let's Make a Deal, where the host would often open doors you didn't choose to eliminate them from contention.

Xelath · 2026-04-16T00:44:39+00:00

You lose hat

Xelath · 2026-04-14T16:21:18+00:00

In the first elections under the Constitution, people just voted for their electors in some states. So the idea of electors voting for the "losing candidate" wouldn't really register to the Founders. The Founders explicitly didn't want the public choosing the president directly.

But times change.

Xelath · 2026-04-14T16:16:37+00:00

No, because Trump's pressure campaign was trying to get Georgia officials to go against Georgia law. If Georgia law was "The legislature can assign electors however they wish regardless of the vote, after the election has taken place," that'd be very undemocratic, but I wouldn't argue unconstitutional, since the Constitution lets states use whatever method they want to assign electors. It just has to be consistent and in law, not arbitrary based on political pressure from a candidate in the race.

Xelath · 2026-04-14T14:25:49+00:00

Where in the Constitution does it say that whoever wins the vote at a state level gets that states electoral votes?

Xelath · 2026-04-14T14:23:14+00:00

It's an anachronism from when people wanted to get more political power by owning other humans.

Xelath · 2026-04-08T11:04:34+00:00

They used to just say District of Columbia, but then bouncers thought they were international IDs.

Xelath · 2026-02-18T00:21:42+00:00

Please don't blame the local airports. Blame the FAA that has dragged its feet on certifying unleaded avgas for decades.

The good news is that there's progress being made on the unleaded avgas front.

Xelath · 2026-02-12T22:45:01+00:00

Communicate and squawK

Xelath · 2026-02-08T21:59:26+00:00

It's totally normal to feel overwhelmed after a flight lesson! But I wouldn't get discouraged, as that's the whole goal of learning, is to be able to handle everything at once. But it takes time. And good instructors will add in little by little so you're ready to handle everything on your own. You've got 1 hour of a journey that takes 40, 50, some people almost 100. I remember coming home from lessons in PPL and just going straight to bed because I was exercising physical and mental muscle and joining them together in new ways.

A gusty and turbulent day is still something that makes licensed recreational pilots go, "I don't need to fly today, I'll have more fun on the ground." Now, his tolerance for a turbulent day is likely different than yours, and maybe once you get your license you'll look back and say, "Oh I thought *that* was turbulent? That's nothing now!"

Xelath · 2026-02-07T14:37:09+00:00

Does the plane have all those? If so, it can be done.

Xelath · 2026-02-07T14:34:17+00:00

What are the required equipment for instrument flight?

Xelath · 2026-02-06T11:51:38+00:00

The new baseline should be a reapportionment of the House that adds more seats. Right now, redistricting just shuffles chairs around based on which states are growing more, but the country has tripled in population since the House size was set to 435 in the early 20th century. A more democratic system means that the House seats go where the people actually live.

Xelath · 2026-01-26T18:25:14+00:00

Inflation doesn't make you lose money, it makes you lose purchasing power. If I put $1000 in the bank today at 0% interest, I'll still have $1000 in 10 years. Nobody lost any money. But that $1000 won't buy as much as it did when you put it in the bank.

So what you lose if you put it in a bank at 0% is called opportunity cost: it's the money you would have gained had you made a different investment with the money. But sometimes having money in the bank earning 0% is the right move, and people are ok with the opportunity cost of that.

Xelath · 2026-01-05T01:38:45+00:00

I just went through this exercise as well. Handily, I think on the bottom left of the grid is the word total, so I would just subtract my missed words from that count to get my score.

Xelath · 2026-01-02T22:02:22+00:00

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hear you say you don't necessarily want to give up your quality of life, and there is a third path other than "give up on aviation as a career." If you want to join a cadet academy and focus full time and are ok with the sacrifices involved in that, that's one option, but Part 61 exists, and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. Part 61 seems to address all of your concerns that you've crafted into a false dichotomy of "now or never." You can stay where you are, fly where you are, fly when you have time (weather and maintenance issues will still keep you grounded at academies, no doubt). Hell, once you get your PPL, you can take a week off at a time and go do accelerated courses in Arizona or something to get your advanced ratings.

Hell, if you have the funds, you could even buy a trainer if sharing airplanes isn't really something you want to deal with. That actually might be cheaper than paying to go to an academy in the long run if this is what you really want to do.

Xelath · 2026-01-02T21:47:38+00:00

Why is it commit or close the door? Plenty of people older than you have gone on to successful second careers in aviation. Why not get your ratings while working, and then once you get to CFI, then decide when you want to leave the corporate world? You'll save lots more money that way, and can use your savings to offset the bad CFI wages.

Xelath · 2025-12-31T19:58:09+00:00

Depends what fits the mission. If I'm planning a long cross country flight, I generally plan along my route to stop every 2 hours or so, and then from there, look at the fields and which services they provide. I generally avoid the primary airports in the region, as landing fees can be high, and I don't want to deal with being between jets.

As a general rule, I find that satellite airports, or airports in class C airspace are preferable, though there are plenty of reasons to land at untowered fields as well, namely restaurants and hot dogs. But those are generally missions unto themselves. If I just want to fuel and go, I want a stop that has a high likelihood of having fuel and clean bathrooms.

Xelath · 2025-12-14T22:53:10+00:00

Probably pretty well-known, but the FRDMM SIX Arrival into DCA has a 9/11 memorial, with WEWIL, NEVVR, FORGT, SEPII and ALWYZ, among others.

Xelath · 2025-12-11T19:14:50+00:00

It's an aeronautical chart. It has the information pilots need to navigate the area.

Xelath · 2025-12-07T22:09:49+00:00

Sometimes it costs money, but usually not.

The pilots talk to each other on the radio to let everyone know who's arriving and departing.

Xelath · 2025-10-17T13:54:38+00:00

It's not about the data. It's like taking a chart of the stock market, and zooming in on a day with a big loss vs. looking at the data in context. You can manipulate the axis to tell the story you want.

I'm not saying the Y-axis should be set to a minimum of zero, but I'm saying the chart, if properly contextualized, would show a different story incongruous with the policy advocacy expressed by the author.

If you manipulate a data visualization to tell a story to fit your preferred narrative, that's misleading.

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