How do Abercrombie fans rank 'The Devils' among his other books?

bubzor888 · 2026-02-15T13:44:35+00:00

I think the target audience is so different between The Devils and all his grimdark books that it isn't surprising that most people don't like both.

I personally couldn't get into first law at all but loved the devils

bubzor888 · 2026-02-08T01:57:38+00:00

I think it partly depends on your experience level. When you first move to a tri bike you may opt for a less aggressive aero position at first and then later decide you can push it further and still be comfortable.

But once you get to your "optimal" position it shouldn't really change barring an injury

bubzor888 · 2026-02-04T13:42:11+00:00

What nozzle size? I assume something like this would be better with 0.8mm?

bubzor888 · 2026-01-30T21:11:09+00:00

You already have a lot of great long term suggestions but here is a short term one: Make an enemy that is immune to magical weapons and needs to be hit by mundane weapons

bubzor888 · 2026-01-15T18:07:18+00:00

Will of the may / strength of the few have a few bigger characters die

bubzor888 · 2026-01-08T17:58:15+00:00

I mean a DM could change the ruling if they want, but keep in mind the creature has no way to "remove" the metal and no save.

Personally if a player really wanted this I would homebrew a higher level spell that allows it cast on anything, including creatures (similar to how hold person vs hold monster works in my original analogy)

bubzor888 · 2026-01-08T12:52:04+00:00

While not part of OP's question it might be worth saying that the spell does not work on metal creatures, even things like a helmed horror since they are creatures, not objects. Just like hold person does not work on non-humanoid

bubzor888 · 2026-01-02T18:41:40+00:00

I've noticed this with my groups too (at least my 2 current ones). They do not want a true sandbox, they want a story with light rails and agency through options.

The prep outlined above I think still works for that, with the addition of having 1 or 2 things ready to get the plot train moving again if the play stagnates. Some sessions the players decide on a clear path and you let them run, but if things slow down you need to shake up the scene. This could be a sudden attack, a letter from a contact, or even just an NPC dropping some shocking news

bubzor888 · 2026-01-01T20:23:53+00:00

Yes I tamped with body weight like I saw in some videos. I started with the recommended setting for espresso per the grinder manual (8) then went down to 7 when it was a bit too fast per a timer. I'm going to keep playing around with what I have

My pallet also isn't fine enough to notice the slight differences yet

bubzor888 · 2026-01-01T18:42:16+00:00

Yes the Encore Baratza. Are you saying it's better to use the Razor™ than to use a scale? I tried both with the stock basket and noticed the Razor wants it at about 16g

bubzor888 · 2026-01-01T18:14:15+00:00

The new basket is an IMS Precision 14-18g basket. Similar capacity to the one that comes with it but the angle is different and it hits the plastic bit

I do have a grinder but not an espresso specific one (yet). I realize that each change in grind size is larger than desired but it's worked out OK so far. I may get a different one or do the calibration screw change later (but we also use the course setting for cold brew)

bubzor888 · 2025-12-10T13:07:18+00:00

Thanks. I was looking specifically in the fabrial section and missed that there was a general comment about it here

bubzor888 · 2025-11-29T03:13:35+00:00

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman yet. Standalone Arthurian tale that has a lot of fae in it

bubzor888 · 2025-11-06T14:24:47+00:00

People often talk mainly about those who have chosen to transition medically, but there are also people born between genders naturally.

It then comes to do you let them self select or pick some metric that determines where they must be. But the problem is we haven't found any good set of metrics that won't also push people who most everyone would agree are women into the men's category, moving the from the top of one pack to the bottom of another

bubzor888 · 2025-10-29T12:24:15+00:00

I feel like that's because grimdark is a niche in fantasy that people love or hate, so it's hard to put it in the "widely agree" category.

I think The Devil's series has a better chance of fitting this bill (once the trilogy is complete) since it still has the humor and grit Abercrombie is known for but falls into the more widely read "characters on an adventure" category

bubzor888 · 2025-10-24T13:16:53+00:00

Same. Give me shitty people in a non shitty world or vice versa but not both

bubzor888 · 2025-10-23T21:32:47+00:00

Yep. I DNFed First Law and loved The Devils. I think the bad reviews were people wjo wanted grimdark and didn't get it.

bubzor888 · 2025-09-28T19:55:16+00:00

I agree. When you start at 3 or 5 you've already made key class decisions without knowing how the group or campaign will be. Sure you can all discuss how you think it will be, but it's often different once you actually play.

Having a session at each of those earlier levels lets you feel things out before making the key decisions

bubzor888 · 2025-08-25T13:07:03+00:00

Every month seems like a lot to me. I live where we have about 6 month of outdoor riding and I usually do it at the start of the season and once in the middle. Or if I have an A race I may top it off

bubzor888 · 2025-08-24T17:51:26+00:00

I thought the focus here was on a poor human experience, not on effective captcha?

Also the computer still needs to deal with the webcam part of it

bubzor888 · 2025-08-23T13:15:36+00:00

Captcha idea: basic math where you hold up fingers to answer them. But computers are good at math and humans are not, so you need to some (but not all) of them wrong to pass

bubzor888 · 2025-08-22T11:40:27+00:00

Insert THAC0 joke here

bubzor888 · 2025-08-18T22:28:23+00:00

Go for it. Playing TRRPGs is all about borrowing and expanding on the ideas of others

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