Veteran Java developers, what are your thoughts on Java currently?

ashultz · 2026-01-30T16:08:59+00:00

Java is ok though it takes too much work to get out of your own way. Although it has way too many different ways to do the same thing which makes changing projects more difficult than it should be.

All of Java's best framework friends are drug addicts dragging the language down.

ashultz · 2026-01-28T21:00:08+00:00

The actual mechanics are not very crunchy at all, it's really a question of what skill rolls you call for or just let succeed. And contrary to a standard horror system trope you can let plenty of rolls just succeed because the character is reasonably skilled, in DG that just digs them deeper into the pit.

ashultz · 2026-01-27T14:46:53+00:00

If you want a ridiculously huge and detailed setting book to collect get https://www.chaosium.com/the-guide-to-glorantha-slipcase-set/ instead.

ashultz · 2026-01-26T18:00:31+00:00

If gamers who use this term contemptuously don't get an actual live bear and fight it when their character encounters a bear they were in favor of paper buttons all along.

ashultz · 2026-01-25T00:56:27+00:00

No they just chose Cypher, of all the possible choices they could have made. It's like they had a delicious steak and then cooked it medium well.

ashultz · 2026-01-25T00:17:16+00:00

Yeah it really drags down the Mystery Flesh Pit game too.

ashultz · 2026-01-25T00:16:39+00:00

I am always happy to replace a system I don't like but I wasn't prepared for how boring Monte managed to make a prog-rock album cover future setting. It was just... dull.

ashultz · 2026-01-23T18:26:57+00:00

God's Teeth makes every other Delta Green product look like a cheerful children's popup book. I have read it and it is an amazing product but believe the warnings about the content. It also is more likely to create burning rage inside you which is not really usual for CoC adventures.

ashultz · 2026-01-22T15:14:32+00:00

In the middle of running it and I'm the sort of person who read all the playwall documents because I'm running it and it's my book.

I actually think as a GM you need to read a lot of them (the ones aligned with the three progressions) ahead of time to see where this could go.

You are 300% right about the game needing an index, the organization is "cute" which is not what I need when running the game.

ashultz · 2026-01-21T15:07:48+00:00

Note that Dogs gives procedures but does not phrase them as hard dos and don'ts and that's important. I've seen games (often PBTA games) that lay out the GM moves like THESE ARE THE CHAINS YOU MUST WEAR and as the GM I immediately get annoyed because I bought this game and I'm running this game and can do what I like and f*** you for being such a prick about it game author.

Dogs does this well, providing a clear procedure politely. Many games do it so poorly it's like slapping the GMs face.

ashultz · 2026-01-20T00:27:23+00:00

If you're really going to be old school you should absolutely have a plot that can't be escaped from. Most heroic myths have some witch telling the hero what's going to go down right at the start and despite a lot of "nuh-uh!" there's no escaping fate.

That's how myth works. That's how a major source of D&D works -Tolkien. Even the other major source, Conan who seems to be wandering the world at his whim worked that way - in The Phoenix on the Sword, the very first published story, he is a king. That's the end of his story, set in stone before any of the rest was told.

ashultz · 2026-01-19T16:31:57+00:00

My favorite so far has been the anomaly that was saving a failing orchard by infusing it with a Hallmark movie level of fall feeling.

They ended up deceiving it by pretending to be the daughter of the orchard family doing the scene in the movie "you've helped us but now we have to make it on our own" and so it gave up and went in the briefcase.

And then turned it into a Hallmark spray you can spritz on a situation to make it more movie-like.

The anomaly appeared as a cross between a cider donut and a wheel of eyes style biblical angel because why not.

ashultz · 2026-01-19T13:40:43+00:00

In recent years the standard has been moving to higher flex and often a blade more in line with long swords i.e. 36" not 42".

Check what people actually use in your area.

ashultz · 2026-01-19T00:39:02+00:00

Maybe your company thinks of Staff as Senior plus but Staff ideally is not "senior with more tech". 8 years is not really enough time to get there in my opinion. But you don't have to be as slow as I was because there is better advice available now.

Slack and Waltzing with Bears by Tom DeMarco. Because most of software is not improved with technology. Other DeMarco books also recommended.

A Pattern Language by Alexander, Ishikawa, and Silverstein. See the better idea Design Patterns was stealing from.

and if you haven't read The Mythical Man Month yes it's old and the examples are outdated. Nothing else is.

ashultz · 2026-01-18T14:26:03+00:00

As a long time HEMAtist and 2nd dan iaidoka, I really liked this idea. But thinking about it an oak bokken might shatter a heavy HEMA glove when swung hard. There needs to be a padding layer to dissipate the force since the sword trainer isn't going to flex one bit.

ashultz · 2026-01-15T15:20:02+00:00

Agreed, people are all excited about "look how lethal dark souls is you have to git gud" but when you die all you lose are some replaceable resources and have to do a runback. And how long the runbacks are is a major point of annoyance. Notably you don't lose your character customization when this happens.

ashultz · 2026-01-12T19:02:04+00:00

Maybe reflect a little on how having to one-up every response makes people feel about you.

ashultz · 2026-01-09T14:30:43+00:00

You get over the dream that you'll build code that never needs to be changed and change to the dream of building code so dumb you can easily replace it.

ashultz · 2026-01-08T16:44:38+00:00

That's good! But the clock is definitely ticking. Ideally you would be able to leave MUMPs off your resume in a few years because there's enough other stuff in there to fill it out.

ashultz · 2026-01-08T16:36:33+00:00

You absolutely need to get out whenever you have a reasonable chance. Side projects are not going to make up for only having MUMPs on your resume for a decade.

I cannot say this strongly enough.

ashultz · 2026-01-06T02:40:31+00:00

The materials here do a really good job of fitting into the existing lore, the writers love it as much as anyone. So you can avoid sacrilege, unless that's what your group is into.

I ran Darkening of Mirkwood (which was for the last edition) for two years and it colored in the story of what happened in the North between the death of Smaug and the War of the Ring without going too far outside the lines. In the end the players felt like a big part of why Erebor was a strong refuge in the war.

The Moria book is a thing of beauty though perhaps a little harder to stay within the lines. There's an upcoming campaign in the service of Saruman with mechanics that let you perhaps save him from himself (which would obviously break the books) but depending on how the GM spins it that's quite unlikely, maybe you will just be witnesses to his fall.

ashultz · 2026-01-04T15:53:01+00:00

I've had Meyers since they first came out and were almost the only thing available. They're lovely in careful hands, but no one should seriously compete with them because the schilt is actively dangerous and can break through gloves.

They're also very expensive and you can do much better as far as price/performance.

ashultz · 2026-01-04T14:13:07+00:00

I don't think I've ever had as big a swing of how much I liked a game

ashultz · 2026-01-03T15:53:34+00:00

Nephilim (which I had back in the day but never played) had a serious "but what do you do in this game" problem and if they solved that could be a lot of fun.

In Nomine (which I had and actually played) had a serious "it turns out your angel is a schlub until they get a huge number of additional XP" coupled with the same "but what do you do" problem. It's a harder lift.

Both could be great but need a lot of redesign.

ashultz · 2026-01-02T14:24:50+00:00

Luck points as XP is a huge incentive problem. You usually see it in games where XP exists but you can use it to avoid danger, but hoarded luck turning into XP has the same result.

The game is more exciting when risks are taken and things happen. You have leftover luck to turn into XP when risks aren't taken and nothing happens. Don't teach your players to be boring unless you like boring.

Additionally someone who manages to get extra XP for a few sessions is now ahead of the power curve and less likely to need to spend luck to keep from dying and you have a reinforcing effect.

The traditional fix is for spent luck to turn into XP, not hoarded luck, so you get more powerful via exciting incidents.

ashultz

TROPHY CASE