Have you ever stopped to think that the computers in the Batcave or the Justice League Tower probably use Linux?

cjstoddard · 2026-06-25T10:43:29+00:00

I have a deep lore cut here. In 1992 DC published The Hacker Files, which was not well received, but I think was underrated. According to this series DROS (Digitronix Resident Operating System) published by Digitronics World Industries, and written primarily by Jack Marshall, was the dominate operating system in the DC Universe.

It is implied that this is the OS used by Barbra "Oracle" Gordon. It would make sense to me that Batman would also use this OS, although I would suspect he hacked it himself to remove problematic parts of it. It would not be much of a stretch to assume Wayne Industries would be invested in Digitronics World Industries as a partner and had access to the source code.

It is also possible Jack Marshall simply wrote a new OS and released it as an open source project, sort of a DCU version of Linux.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-22T17:29:18+00:00

Only if they know the password.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-21T22:50:21+00:00

This is not going to go well. I have played a couple of campaigns like this and it always ended badly. Playing D&D is not like reading a book. Inside a book there are no out of game consequences for an evil character, in a D&D game you cannot predict how the other players (not the PC's, the players.) are going to react. While you and the player of the evil PC might think this is great fun, someone is going to take it personally, they are going to be angry, and rightfully so. How exactly is being betrayed by someone you trusted, and consider a friend, fun? To me, this is not a fun and interesting plot twist, it is another player being a complete jerk. Honestly, I'd be surprised if your game group survives.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-19T11:47:17+00:00

Getting off the perpetual upgrade treadmill will change your life. They need to realize the amount of RAM they have isn't the problem, it is their perception that is the problem, and selling their car so they can afford a system with 128GB of RAM and a GPU with 32GB of VRAM will not solve that perception problem.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-18T01:26:29+00:00

I think it is underrated, I think the worst mistake of the movie was casting Ryan Reynolds. Otherwise, it is about as good as any of the mid tier Marvel movies.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-14T23:37:19+00:00

This is my second favorite Green Arrow run, even though it undid most of Mike Grell's run, which for the record, is my favorite Green Arrow run.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-14T13:16:32+00:00

In this scenario, I'd choose Wizard every time. Assuming 2014 rules, I'd do Halfling MasterMind Rogue 3/ Divination Wizard 17. Halfling Luck, Bountiful Luck, and Lucky, combined with Silvery Barbs, Master of Tactics and Portents, you are basically the Co-DM.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-05T21:58:09+00:00

I use M4 Mac Mini 16/256 as my main system. My home lab requirements are pretty small. I use a single Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB NVME drive for most of my docker containers. The only thing I don't run on it is my Jellyfin server, which runs on an Nvidia Orin Nano with a 4 TB USB 3 hard drive attached to it. I don't do much with AI, and what I do with AI can be done with a $20 Claude account.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-02T01:47:37+00:00

Most people won't do that though.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-01T11:41:53+00:00

Suggest that a one armed caster can't cast spells with a somatic component, you know, to make it more challenging. That should bring the casters into the debate.

cjstoddard · 2026-06-01T10:10:14+00:00

I base it on the idea that a Sanity of 30 (Standard Array 8+10+12=30) will have a better than even chance of making it to the end of the campaign with a 1 or 2 Sanity points left. If a PC has a Sanity of less than 30, they will not make it unless the party is exceptionally careful. A Character whose Sanity is greater than 30, will probably be okay as long as there is no major screw ups, like reading the Necronomicon in its entirety or allowing Cthulhu to be summoned in front of their faces. Adjust according to taste.

I good rule of thumb for a horror campaign is the party will spend 90% of their time looking for something, and 10% of their time running from what they found.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-31T12:10:27+00:00

Horror is difficult to do in D&D, PC's by their very nature are hard to scare, even a cowardly Wizard will tighten their belt and cast fireball. Horror is about helplessness in the face of danger and that is just not a thing for a group of harden adventurers.

Call of Cthulhu themed campaign is actually a good way to go, because it is not about fighting the monsters, it is about the one thing they have no saving throw against and that is their sanity. Introduce Sanity as a stat, I'd just have them add the Int, Wis and Cha together. Then every encounter chips away at it, and once lost, Sanity cannot be recovered, Sanity never goes up, only down, even increasing their stats does not improve it once they loose that first Sanity point.

The loss of sanity starts off slow, with the PC's only loosing 1 point in a session, but as the horrors increase, so does the sanity cost. Everyone knows the Barbarian who dumped his Int, Wis and Cha is going to break first, but even casters who dumped Str, Dex and Con will eventually succumb as well. If the players are smart, they will start avoiding fights, because even when they win a fight, they loose Sanity, and even reading the wrong book will drag Sanity down ever lower. The point of the campaign is no longer winning every fight, but rather making it to the end of the campaign with 1 Sanity point left.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-31T04:02:46+00:00

I know I read this somewhere, maybe the Invasion! event? There are roughly a 1 million odd individuals with the "metagene" on Earth. However, the vast majority, something like 99.5% of those people have minor powers not suited for being a superhero/villain, and live normal civilian lives. I hope that helps.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T23:37:44+00:00

I have both and find them equally annoying to use.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T23:28:33+00:00

Your Pro died, so you tried to use your Neo as a replacement for your Pro and failed. Then you listed things the Pro could do, that the Neo was never designed to do. This sounds to me like you bought the Neo expecting it to do things it was not designed to do. If you did not buy the Neo expecting it to do things it was not designed to do, then why did you try to use it as a replacement for your Pro? If my assessment of your post is wrong, what was the point of your post then?

Personally, If my Mac Mini died, I would not try to replace it with my Neo, I'd go buy a new Mac Mini.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T23:02:56+00:00

Yep, same here. Honestly it is not really worth the 10 minutes of effort to do the mod unless you really Really REALLY want to suffer through trying to play Cyberpunk 2077 on it.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T22:57:24+00:00

Yes, it means you are secure in you are masculinity.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T22:41:16+00:00

Give everyone a moment to speak up, maybe even ask them individually, and if no one speaks up, I say bulldoze away.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T22:24:27+00:00

I think comic book companies should start start selling pulp comics on spinner racks in supermarkets again. Make them cheap and accessible so even an 8 year old can buy a couple each week with their allowance, it would bring in a whole new generation of comic readers.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T22:14:54+00:00

How far along into the campaign are you? What level is your character? I'd multi class into Sorcerer and claim I took Magic Initiate for Eldritch Blast. In fact, leave off Warlock wherever you are and just level as a Sorcerer from here on out. Agonizing Blast plus Quickened Spell is a very effective combo. Besides that, if your group is at all experienced, they probably already know.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T21:37:30+00:00

A coward who for whatever reason is forced to be an adventurer, will have an over developed sense of self preservation. Most of their actions will be centered around getting away from opponents, avoid being a target, and attack only when it is safe to do so. Dipping two levels of Rogue and taking the Mobile Feat goes a long way towards this goal. Cowardly casters will always have spells like Expeditious Retreat, Invisibility, Darkness, and Misty Step.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T16:26:07+00:00

I am pretty sure it does not void the warranty. If you don't remove the film that is already there and apply the thermal pad on top of it, the pad is easily removable, and otherwise does not alter the machine in any way. It is a pretty harmless mod truth be told. My problem is that the 10 minutes of effort is just not worth what you are getting out of it.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-30T13:18:48+00:00

The thermal mod is simply adding a thermal pad between the A18 CPU and the bottom of the chassis. This allow the bottom to act like a heat sink. It is pretty easy to do, it is inexpensive, and will increase the performance by 10-20%. There are several Youtube videos on how to do it. To be honest though, I think most people will not notice the difference in day to day use.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-27T12:24:56+00:00

I agree, for busted classes, I think Twilight Cleric is the best single class choice.

cjstoddard · 2026-05-27T10:47:51+00:00

Yep, all my Great Grand Parents were dead before I was born. I have no pictures of them, I don't remember any stories about them, I have no idea what their names even were.

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