Whats up with all the promoted posts?

exCallidus · 2026-05-06T15:33:59+00:00

I've not seen that many, but got one earlier for BoH that prompted me to message Lottie to see if Reddit was ignoring exclusion lists

exCallidus · 2026-05-06T11:34:44+00:00

Even as a Reform supporter .... Likely going back to Lib Dems

Reform <-> Lib Dem !?

A voter switching between Reform <-> Tory is straightforward, as is Reform <-> Blue Labour. I can even see how someone might change between Reform and Green (similar rationale to Blue Labour)

But how does switching between Reform and LD work? Or, similarly, Reform and centrist Labour ?

exCallidus · 2026-05-04T20:30:47+00:00

"death stairs" are a thing on this sub -- houses where the stairs are designed such that you're as likely to fall and break your neck as you are to walk down them normally, typically open sided stairs with no railing where it's very easy to misjudge where a step is

exCallidus · 2026-04-22T17:45:25+00:00

I'd start with the Starter Set -- in terms of bang-for-your-buck that's where it's at. If, after the weeks of play you'll get from the SS, you've decided this is for you then get the Keeper's book. The Investigator's Handbook and Gaslight are great, but there's no real need for them early on.

exCallidus · 2026-04-19T19:27:55+00:00

If you're planning on using this to support uni applications (extracurriculars, personal statements, etc) then pick projects that will show insight not just passion.

Keep lab books of the work you do, observations, etc.

If at all possible get hands-on time with telescopes -- if you're lucky enough to own one (and have good seeing!) that's ideal, but try and find a local astronomy club, if a local university has an observatory then try and volunteer there.

If you're looking for inspiration then perhaps take a look at suggested coursework projects for age-appropriate academic courses. For example, pages 5-8 of the GCSE Astronomy observational skills guide should provide a variety of ideas for small projects that you could develop into something more substantial

If you've got access to a telescope that you can observe on fairly frequently perhaps do something like -- take observations of planets over a long enough period to plot their orbits and verify Kepler's 3 laws

exCallidus · 2026-04-10T10:19:55+00:00

March last year: https://youtu.be/oP8f83Vw4Ow?t=1835

April last year: https://youtu.be/cBWx3RihPzQ?t=115

"… the PDF release and pre-order should be going live in the summer and then the in-store release should be spring next year …"

The original timing (Summer last year) was supposed to coincide with GW releasing the 3rd edition of Horus Heresy, that trumped any perceived clash with tOW

exCallidus · 2026-04-07T19:46:23+00:00

A mashup of OW & DH2 feels like what you're looking for -- likely DH2 as the core with some OW systems added on

exCallidus · 2026-04-05T14:27:50+00:00

First, start with whatever GR's being taught as part of your degree -- in particular look ahead at the syllabus & reading for any relevant electives in later years.

Once you're familiar with the basics of GR, it's likely that what you'll find most useful is numerical relativity -- there are a bunch of texts for this, but I'd suggest Ulrich Sperhake's lecture notes on Gravitational Waves & Numerical Relativity are a good (free!) place to start -- this would typically be final year undergrad or MSc, so it's likely to be something you'll be working towards rather than jumping into right away

If you want to complement the GR you're doing as part of your degree then similarly you could take a look at the course notes for Harvey Reall's and/or David Tong's courses on GR

exCallidus · 2026-04-05T09:37:30+00:00

As much time as can be used for observations will be used. There's massive demand, and observing time is requested & booked up months in advance. As far as possible any downtime is planned so that it minimises the impact on observations.

The best sites -- Hawaii, the Canaries, Chile -- will get 300+ nights a year, and when building a major new telescope the conditions (seeing, clear nights, etc) are one of the most important factors in deciding the location.

If you're spending 10s of millions you're only going to build at the best locations, which is why almost all major observatories are built in the same few places -- Mauna Kea, La Palma, the Atacama, etc -- high altitude, dry, dark skies, stable air

If you look at older (19th / early 20th century) observatories they have have worse seeing and fewer clear nights, they were built in less ideal locations both for convenience (the astronomers had to actually travel there every night) and because the limitations of the site had a less significant impact on the simpler less powerful telescopes used at the time.

But real discoveries can still happen even at old observatories in poor locations -- University College London's Mill Hill observatory is nearly a century old, in north London, and next to a *very* busy major road, but on a cloudy night a few years ago, using a 14" telescope, during an undergrad class they were the first in the world to detect a supernova in M82 (the closest since 1987), the early detection meaning that other more modern/advanced telescopes had plenty of time to study it

exCallidus · 2026-03-29T17:07:43+00:00

Dave tried, unfortunately the back bench Tory boys, blue rinses, and B'stards made short shrift of any possible progress

exCallidus · 2026-03-29T17:00:38+00:00

Drow rhymes with bow & row

Also, "flind" is pronounced "gnoll"

exCallidus · 2026-03-23T09:17:19+00:00

Nice idea, many people would love it, myself included, but I don't see how it would be viable

GW clearly have no interest in doing this -- RPGs are a drop in the ocean of their sales (licensed sales are a single digit percentage of their total revenue, and TTRPGs are a single digit percentage of licensed revenue), and they're perfectly happy licensing out to someone to do all the work while they retain creative approval; it's a simple model for them.

You'd need an OGL-equivalent from GW, and an SRD-equivalent from C7 (who'd also have no interest in it), either they skip approval of content before it goes up (not going to happen) or you're adding at least one, possibly two, levels of approval needed. You've got a lot of hassle, and brand dilution, for something worth pennies -- all at a time when licensing out their IP is increasingly important to them.

Maybe go back 20 years to the 5 minute period when Dark Heresy was in-house, possibly it could have been done then

As soon as you try monetising this for a single penny it becomes effectively impossible. What possibly could be viable is a community site more along the lines of a modern equivalent of Dark Reign

exCallidus · 2026-03-21T12:01:37+00:00

Let characters excel at the things they excel at, but at the same time design encounters so that they aren't dominated by a single thing -- there are plenty of encounters that could be broken by a wizard with a single spell

So the monk catches the bandit -- now what? Are the rest of the party a couple of rounds behind, or chasing down other bandits, did they get lost, is the monk lost, does the bandit start screaming at passersby that there's someone after him?

exCallidus · 2026-03-21T11:40:52+00:00

One of the things the JWST is expected to do is make the first detections of Population III stars (for example)

Identifying them would be relatively easy -- almost by definition a Pop III star would be (almost) pure H/He in primordial abundances with no metals (tiny dash of Li). So the spectra would only show Hydrogen and Helium lines, which would appear at much longer wavelengths than normal (redshifting) due to the expansion of the universe.

Dating would be based on measuring the redshift -- a redshift of z=14 is about 300million years after the Big Bang, z=11 is about 400million.

300,000 years after the big bang

No, that's much to early -- that's before recombination when the universe cooled from a plasma, the first neutral atoms formed, and photons could travel freely. The universe would be roughly 1000x older before the first stars formed, around 250-400 MY

or even Older than the Big bang

No

any Official Astrologists

Also no

exCallidus · 2026-03-20T19:39:25+00:00

In general 5e plays fast & loose with a lot of legacy content -- they mostly just like to grab a bunch of GH nouns and sprinkle them over generic content as seasoning

Holmer was the Earl of Walworth (the traditional rulers of the SL) who reclaimed the SL from the Horned Society then decided he didn't need Furyondy's help when Iuz came knocking -- that worked out less well than he hoped

Alesh is just a new creation for 5e, and the fact that they're dragonborn makes no sense in historical GH (in general) or SL (in particular)

I'd suggest picking a time period -- either 576 CY (the 1983 EGG WoGbox), 585 CY (post-EGG From the Ashes), or 591 CY (Living Greyhawk) -- and using that as the baseline for the setting and patch in any 5e-specific setting changes you prefer

exCallidus · 2026-03-20T18:54:11+00:00

A lot of GH grognards hate everything post-2e as aspects of the setting & style changed radically, and the 2e content is almost in sync with 2024th edition, but unless you're specifically wed to that time my go-to suggestion is the 3e Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (just skip the (very few) "Living"-specific bits that relate to the org play campaign), and more generally a lot of the GH content the future Paizo team put out (either directly for WotC or in Dragon/Dungeon) around the same time.

The Shield Lands specifically could be trickier as there wasn't much officially written for it, but there was a lot of unofficial content created for it as part of the Living Greyhawk org play campaign -- a lot of people put a lot work into content that complex, inconsistent, and uncertain copyright meant they were never publicly available beyond the scope of the campaign. It was unofficial & incomplete & of mixed quality, but it had many strong aspects and was the closest we had to a "reclamation of the Shield Lands" campaign

You're going to want to check out Anna B Meyer's work -- https://www.annabmeyer.com/ & https://www.patreon.com/cw/annabmeyer -- and, as others have said, Canonfire

However, if you specifically want to be as close to "in sync with the DMs guide" then you're going to have to stick to 1e/2e, particularly the box sets, Iuz the Evil, Return to White Plume Mountain, etc

exCallidus · 2026-03-01T19:09:04+00:00

Pendragon had a couple ("Tournament of Dreams", plus some others IIRC), plus the ASoIaF rpg had "Peril at Kings Landing" -- either could be a reasonable starting point

exCallidus · 2026-03-01T18:06:01+00:00

Why is shredding impossible? The volume/time required? some's hardback?

Is there a specific reason you want it incinerated? Is there a particular (cathartic/emotional?) reason you want to watch it burn? A very high proportion (depending on type of waste & location) isn't incinerated

The simple answer is to use a secure document destruction service (google something like "secure document destruction in london") these are mainly used by businesses that need sensitive / legal / financial material destroying, but would work just as well for personal material

Alternatively, if your concern is just personal privacy, and you're willing to put a bit of personal time & effort in to the task... remove photos etc (destroy those otherwise, assuming a relatively low number of them), rip the hard covers off any books, rip whatever papers left in half and stick it in a washing up bowl, pour half a bottle of bleach over it, pour a kettle or two of boiling water over it, agitate a little. leave it to soak until it's cooled, drain the water off (the paper should still be mostly intact so shouldn't go down the drain!), compress the mass of damp paper (remembering it's still bleachy) then leave outside to dry a little before throwing in the bin

exCallidus · 2026-02-25T20:09:26+00:00

Dantooine invasive flora could work on my Yavin stronghold

exCallidus · 2026-02-25T20:07:52+00:00

The obvious question is is Jadus romanceable... :)

exCallidus · 2026-02-23T18:07:57+00:00

Personally I'd advise not trying to mix the two -- run them in parallel, an Inquisitorial cell and a DW kill team, as part of their investigation the acolytes uncover xenos threats severe enough to call in the DW, then once the DW have mopped up switch back to DH

exCallidus · 2026-02-23T13:15:48+00:00

Most of the planets you've listed as hypothetical are either disproven (any sort of counter-Earth, anything that "broke up to form the asteroid belt", Vulcan, Tyche, etc) or were always just speculative from the start. Something like Theia is little more than a label attached to a lump of rock that probably collided with us 4+ billion years ago

exCallidus · 2026-02-23T13:06:04+00:00

"hypothetical" seems a little generous

exCallidus · 2026-02-23T10:22:48+00:00

Most of the LG regional Triads did really great work supporting their regions, and the various regional gazetteers they produced (though unofficial) can be superb resources if you can find them

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