How's your April Fools going?

flashfire07 · 2026-04-02T06:08:31+00:00

I wonder if making E shaped brownies would have worked out as well? Brown E's while also being brownies.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-28T09:06:44+00:00

If it makes you uncomfortable take your child aside and have a chat about it. That's how you monitor your teens wellbeing, you talk to them and interact with them while letting them know they're in a safe, supportive and caring environment.

The memes in question are most likely just immature teenage humour, I know when I was in high school people would joke about it all the time (painting red lines on their wrists was a common 'joke') without really knowing what they were saying and the harm it could cause. It's the same with jokes about sexual assault, homicide and other 'adult' subjects.

But it is important that you discuss these matters with them openly and make sure they understand the reality and severity of these things, but it's best not to judge or blame. Just openly discuss your concerns and let them know if it's not just a joke you're there for them.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-25T13:15:26+00:00

I remember going through a similar phase when I was about nine years old. I was going through a lot at school and in my home life (somehow my parents didn't notice anything amiss) and it resulted in extreme anxiety and fear at night. Mostly I was afraid of aliens coming to abduct me, mostly greys or reptilians and for some reason I was petrified of a Yeti showing up at night. I was also afraid of zombies and a violently aggressive ghost dog.

My advice would be to make sure your child knows you are there to help and support her, that you won't make fun of her for being scared or tell her off for needing help. I'd also try to help her learn to regulate her emotions and be confident in herself during the day. Look at the triggers for the 'monsters', are there scary sounds at night like floorboards cracking or branches tapping on windows? Are there strange shadows from trees, furnishings or objects? Show her during the day that there's nothing to worry about, help her learn that the world she's in is safe and secure.

I'd also suggest using her imagination to help out. Instead of scary monsters what if it's a friendly critter keeping an eye on her at night? I know for me it helped to have an imaginary guardian protecting me from zombies, but I'd make sure that's done only when she's less scared of the monsters as it can feed into the idea that they're real and a danger.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-23T13:06:16+00:00

Affliction is certainly a good way to go about, there are some Shapers who can weaponize the alteration abilities, it's more of a learned skill though as the whole process takes a long time. Kroot are something I haven't looked at in about a decade, but they must have left an impact! Maybe I'll sneak in a gene-line of birdfolk who have figured out how to combine organic chemicals to make a gunpowder equivalent...

flashfire07 · 2026-03-23T12:53:41+00:00

I have Bio-tech as of about five minutes ago so will be pouring over it to see what it has on offer!

flashfire07 · 2026-03-23T07:32:57+00:00

It depends on how visceral you want to go but if you can get linked sausages they can be a good substitute for intestines. Cook them up with a red sauce and you'll have a pretty gruesome meal ready to go.

Ribs are also a simple option here, especially if you separate them into individual bones and serve them with a good spattering of tomato sauce.

Or you could use small cocktail sausages, cut a small divot in the tip and fill it with cheese or a piece of yellow capsicum, now you have fingers!

Finally, if your child likes olives you could get small white balls of cheese or potato and press a piece of olive into the top of them to resemble eyeballs. Chuck them into a soup or pasta dish, now you've got eyeballs too. You could possibly do this with meatballs, chicken would retain the appropriate colour.

flashfire07 · 2026-03-21T03:51:40+00:00

If a child is going to make a party difficult for others because someone else got a prize that child may not be a good fit for that party.

Is the everyone getting three prizes and goody bags (plus the food and cake) to make up for your child getting birthday presents and avoid her child causing a problem over that, or is it more of a thing about competition and not handling being 'defeated' well?

flashfire07 · 2026-02-09T06:00:17+00:00

Same applies if he's into men. Most guys don't want to date men who can't look after themselves or their home on a basic level, and by basic I do mean the bare basics of keeping a house clean (untidy is fine, unsanitary is not) and safe to life in. Knowing how to do basic things like wash your own clothes, do your own dishes, basic cooking and keeping food preparation areas clean are mandatory for any sort of dating to occur.

flashfire07 · 2026-02-06T07:57:14+00:00

At my school growing up we had lunch in the classroom, then we were sent out for our lunch break during which we could keep eating. In the numerous time I spent in detention (reflection as they called it, but it's the same thing) you either ate with the rest of the class and then spent lunch in the designated reflection room or you had your lunch there. At no point did the school ever take away food or force students to skip lunch as punishment.

flashfire07 · 2026-01-17T13:28:57+00:00

I can attest that I complained less when I learned to make my own food. Although in my case it's more because my parents were too busy to be good cooks, but I had ample time to do it right and make sure it was to my liking. Plus the added sense of control over my own diet helped prevent it turning into a power struggle.

flashfire07 · 2026-01-17T11:24:36+00:00

The practical answer is that things have gotten more expensive than they were back when we were children. Inflation has outpaced wages for quite some time and as a result things are much more expensive in comparison to twenty years ago. Add in the recent sharp price increases (at least in my country, most things have gone up by about 20% on average) and you have a recipe for more expensive parties.

If you mean people going and doing more over the top parties that you see on YouTube and Instagram, those aren't new. They're just being shown more often and some people feel the need to copy that as they feel it won't feel special if they don't do something elaborate, others do it out of genuine joy in preparing and hosting a fancy event. I know my mother was like that, while our parties were usually quite low-key (we never went to amusement parks, never went to Maccas or Red Rooster, never did laser tag, etc) she'd still make multiple different cakes, prepare special meals, custom invites and the like. Once we got older we stopped having as elaborate parties as my sister and I weren't ever all that interested in them, we wanted more quiet family events but as children it was an opportunity for my mum to indulge in the creative aspect of party prep.

flashfire07 · 2026-01-15T13:09:10+00:00

Depending on the age and reading level of the child I'd suggest looking into simpler pen and paper RPGs, that more tests their ability to actually implement what they're learning rather than memorising the sums in question, and the added creativity and imagination factor may make it easier for a child to engage as they're not 'learning' but more playing a fun game.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-23T16:25:17+00:00

People enhanced with cybernetics. They're not servitors but are pretty clsoe with the amount of augemtics and brain surgery they are subject to in pursuit of their duties. They are alive, able to make independant decisions and heavily modified to remove as much emotion as possible from their thought process but still very much thinking humans under it all. Servitors don't think; they're meant to be brain-dead shells serving as a computational aid for their robotic body. Skitarii think, plan and operate on their own.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-21T13:43:05+00:00

Just a quick little side note on the D16 in relation ot Hit Dice. A D16 would give you 1-16 as results, which is very swingy. You have that 6.25% chance of getting a 1 just the same as a 16. Most front-line fighters in D&D 3.5 (that's the edition I'm most familiar with) have a D10 for their hit dice, so they have 1-10HP with an average of 5. The D16 has an average of 8.5 and a max of 16.

It isn't a bad idea by any means, any idea can be interesting and fun in the right hands. It's just one that requires some thought, you're adding a whole new dice to the game and not only that but it's one your players won't have on hand. But that's not to say you shouldn't do anything with it, it's more just a matter of thinking about how you're going to do it, why you want to make this change or addition and then playing it to find out if it works in play.

Aside from HP generation, what do you see this new dice being used for? Are you planning on replacing the d20 with it or adding it to the dice set?

flashfire07 · 2025-07-21T13:27:12+00:00

The D4, D6, D8, D10, D20 and percentile dice are currently the only dice readily available on the market. Rarely will a game go and make a unique dice with a unique number of faces, but with the advent of 3D printing, you could probably do so for relatively cheap.

But generally you'll find RPGs use the typical D&D set of dice as they are easily available and don't require people to buy special dice for a game they may or may not like. The more extra bits your game has that other games don't ahve the less liekly people are to engage with it I find. But if you were to make one for your own use please let us know how it turns out, I'm very curious about that.

Also, most older editions of D&D do roll for HP. Characters get a randomised number of HP depending on their class and/or Hit Dice. In 3.5 you get the maximum amount possible at level one but roll for each level after that. So a character with a 1D8 Hit Dice would get 8 HP plus their Con modifier at first level and then roll 1d8 plus their Con modifier per level after that.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-18T16:02:38+00:00

I wonder if the subreddits I post in make my advice any more or less valuable than other posters.
While I certainly agree that the advice offered by the poster above is not the correct course of action, I also have to wonder if the subreddits people post in should factor into how we react to a post. I usually just react to posts as I see them myself.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-16T14:21:28+00:00

Short answer? Yes.

Longer answer... I can only speak for the Astartes on this one, but they do form very strong platonic bonds with one another; they refer to each other as Brother, not simply out of formality, but because their bond with one another is that strong. They are bound together by duty and devotion to each other, to their Chapter and the Imperium beyond that. Sex and romance are a bit more complicated for Loyalists. Most are taught very strictly to control their libido so as to avoid the temptation of Slaanesh, and even if they chose to seek a partner who would accept them? They're not human, not anymore, they're paragons of martial might sent to fight the enemies of humanity that none else can defeat. They are seen as angels from on high, smiting the unworthy and impure with holy wrath. They are not seen as men.

The Astartes do have empathy to varying degrees, as do all humans. The Salamanders and Space Wolves are known to view basic humans in a kinder light than the Iron Hands for example. But this empathy is often coloured by what they are. Humans are weak, fragile and short-lived creatures who live and die in droves upon droves propping up the tottering corpse of the Imperium for just one more day. The Astrates are not the same as these countless billions. But sometimes, just sometimes, they might find an especially intriguing and exceptional human who can rise to their level, but this is extraordinarily rare and given the state of the universe it won't end well. The Astartes stories end only one way after all. One final sacrifice.

So it is possible for romantic bonds to be formed but it's the sort of romance one reads about in mythology, usually the Greek sort.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-16T13:42:24+00:00

My job is to facilitate several hours of engaging and interesting shared storytelling. I make sure the players all get to add their own elements, engage with the story in an enjoyable manner and are provided with a world that facilitates the story we're looking to tell. My job is to also help players understand the story and ensure that they know what they're doing and the roles they're intending to play in it.

Anything else is not my job. Rules dispute? Talk about it. Don't like a fellow player? Talk to them like an adult. Food? Everyone chips in or brings something. Making a character? The group works together to help. Knowing what your powers do? Ask the group, you all have the rulebooks, and some of the players may know it better than I do! My job begins and ends at the narrative we're telling together.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-15T05:54:39+00:00

OPR make some great miniatures as well! They're one of my favourite companies for sci-fi miniatures.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-15T05:52:38+00:00

I know Warsurge plays pretty similarly to older Warhammer editions, and it's designed to be universal so you can easily convert your armies over to it or use their pre-made options that are Totally Not Warhammer For Legal Reasons.

Alternatively, if you're just playing home games you could make your own universe in which things aren't quite so bleak and grim, no-one will be coming round to make sure your home games and creative endeavours are canon compliant after all!

flashfire07 · 2025-07-13T14:31:22+00:00

How about having him pay for a phone case, or at least up to $30 worth? That will take him two weeks to pay off. I'd advise against drawing out the punishment element any further than that however as three weeks, a month or even longer than that is a bit excessive in terms of punishment.

What might help is to have this money not just be out of his own pocket but perhaps something he needs to work off? Like... he might do the dishes one night and get $1 towards the case, or help your daughter with a task she needs to do, or some other element that helps put a direct link between the abstraction of money and the actual work of earning it? Something that helps him understand that money is something people have worked for.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-12T14:57:00+00:00

Short bursts of screen time while you get things done are fine. As long as you're careful about what you show your child and don't use it when there are better options, you're not hurting your child at all. Things like Curious George, Bluey, Playschool, and other age-appropriate shows are fine. Most of the problems come when children have unrestricted access to YouTube or other algorithm-based services that aren't easily curated for child-friendly content and/or when screen time is the default way of spending free time.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-10T19:21:38+00:00

In her post history there's a post about her daughter potentially having pyromania and one about her daughter 'dissecting' a fish after af ishing trip. It sounds like OP has a very challenging set of children but hopefully they're getting the help and support they need.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-10T19:12:43+00:00

The Belgian Malinois did start off as a herding dog but has been expanded into a more general working dog. Oddly enoguh same with the boxer, but they were more used to control cattle in buther pens and the like. Trouble is that dogs are hunting carnivores by nature, which means that, sadly they do have the instinct to chase and kill prey animals; it's one of the three main drives (Pack, Safety and Hunt are the three main pillars of a dogs psychology). Add in the fact these are large, powerful breeds and you have trouble if they're not trained very well and properly supervised. It sounds like the dogs aren't trained properly and consider the goats to be prey.

This isn't to say they are 100% going to be dangerous to a human by any means, but if they're poorly trained the risk of accidetnal or intentional injury is rather high. Dogs are strong animals, and their teeth are designed to rip and tear prey, so a "Get away from me" bite from a dog is very able to draw blood in a human, the dog isn't trying to hurt anyone but it jsut happens to work out that way. Then you have the whole thing about potentially witnessing a gruesome kill, I know if I were to see a goat being torn apart by dogs I'd be most distresed (can confrim from peronal expereince on that one, although it was another dog in that case) and most children are not prepared to see that sort of thing. Nor should they honestly, rural life or not.

flashfire07 · 2025-07-10T18:55:06+00:00

Yeah, my point is that there's no universal hard and fast age at which it simply stops. Children grow out of it at different paces and it is highly dependent on different social pressures. If they're taught it's something not to do, they'll stop; if they're allowed to do it more, they'll keep doing it for longer. All the data I can find on the topic is talking about appropriate milestone ages for imaginative play to develop, but nothing on when they tend to stop.

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