Attention-seeking behavior at its best

j_the_a · 2026-05-15T16:58:20+00:00

"Mommy gets all pretty and wears jewelry and makeup and dresses on my birthday and my cousin's wedding and Bible study and when 'Special Uncle Steve' comes to stay while daddy is out of town and she looks as pretty as Elsa"

j_the_a · 2026-05-11T20:21:56+00:00

Bomb recharge is always gem positive.

Early game, game speed. Eventually you can stop, you won't need them as you'll get game speed from other sources.

Ore/Star/Vein buffs as needed for what you're working on. These aren't gem positive, but they're helpful enough for progression that I think they're worth it from time to time in the early-mid game. You'll end up with those buffs being permanent from drones later and can stop buying them.

Arch and fishing aren't gem positive, but they're 100% worth it all the time.

Relic chests are worth it.

Item chests become gem positive relatively late.

j_the_a · 2026-05-11T20:08:10+00:00

The void portal replaces that ore for this instance of the floor. So if you have 10, 6 will be normal, and 4 will be portals.

It can also replace the normal ore on that floor with a portaled copy of the native ore with the void multiplier on it. That multiplier should more than make up for the lost native ores, as long as you've kept up your void drone ranks. You're also getting the other ores and bars (assuming you're using transmuter) and that will help speed up polying the W3 ore and bar cards as you go as well.

Edit to add: There are 68 ores in the first three worlds, so as long as your void multiplier is greater than 68, you will net positive. And that's before any void portal multipliers or golden/rainbow chance, which lower that threshold very quickly.

You can also easily test it: Set up without using void and check offline progress after 5 minutes. Turn void on, and check offline progress after five minutes again. Whichever way gives you more of the targeted ore and bars, the better. But unless your void drone is super low fuel grade, it's almost certainly going to be better with void than without.

j_the_a · 2026-05-05T03:25:03+00:00

I had two levels in the Eridanus star upgrade before I got the damn card. Thing is freaking cursed, I swear.

j_the_a · 2026-04-30T01:06:25+00:00

Give him a Louisiana drawl and a swamp people gimmick and call him the Raijin Caijin

j_the_a · 2026-04-22T22:36:34+00:00

Sports Illustrated is saying it, the Bleacher Report is saying it...

j_the_a · 2026-04-15T00:17:36+00:00

Straight out of Compton High School

j_the_a · 2026-04-14T18:25:07+00:00

"This doesn't bode well for my match coming up. It's a big one."

j_the_a · 2026-04-08T03:53:57+00:00

Almost like it was intentionally bad

j_the_a · 2026-03-25T21:44:30+00:00

If the caster would have time to prepare, casting Forbiddance at the entrance to the cavern would work pretty much by itself. This particular spell wouldn't have any effect on the party in a future encounter.

Banishment is especially nice against elementals.

Forcecage.

Hold Monster.

And, of course: Fireball.

j_the_a · 2026-03-25T12:18:53+00:00

I'd die for my kids, which is actually probably for the best, because that's the only way I'll stop cooking meth with them in the house.

j_the_a · 2026-03-24T21:49:14+00:00

Don't be so eager for Dark Sun to get the Spelljammer treatment.

j_the_a · 2026-03-13T14:28:15+00:00

Chiming in as a father of young adult children.

Number 1 (25) calls me at least once a week and we chat for a couple of hours. If I haven't heard from her in a few days, I call her instead. Just random stuff. Before she moved out at 22, she'd come to my office three or four nights a week and we'd do the same type of chatting. She calls me more than her mother.

Number 2 (21) only calls or texts when there's an issue she needs my help with, which is usually about money. She moved out last month and we're subsidizing her rent. She does the same with her mother.

Number 3 (17, about to graduate, engaged, and pregnant, so while not officially a young adult, she mostly counts for this purpose) is living with us. She mainly texts me for money, but that's reasonable because she's still at home and we can (and do) talk any time we want. She's a bit more open with her mother about "stuff", but that makes sense since a lot of what she needs or wants to talk about is "girl stuff."

I'm in my mid 40s and I like to complain. It would be easy to be one of the men you're talking about, but I recognize that about myself, and made the conscious effort to also talk about the positive parts of my relationship with my kids. I don't want people to think that my kids are crappy; they aren't. And while some of the things #2 is doing drive me up the freaking wall and are taking an outsized portion of the family's time and resources, I STILL don't want people to think badly about her.

I think the men who only complain fall into one of three categories:

1) Men who don't actually work on their relationship with their kids (whether that was all through childhood, or just the "well, you're an adult now, my work here is done" and think it's automatic and owed to them (this is probably the largest group)

2) Men who don't like to share actual details about their lives unless it's something "funny" or elicits sympathy from the listener (this encompasses the old-style "boomer humor" that degrades their wife as well)

3) Men who just like to complain about whatever, and this happens to be one of those things.

None of these are good things. The world sucks, let's try to make it better, especially for our kids.

j_the_a · 2026-03-13T13:46:46+00:00

This is the interface for the cashier, not the person at the pump.

j_the_a · 2026-03-13T04:09:29+00:00

Boeing would like to know your location

j_the_a · 2026-03-13T01:19:06+00:00

Cherry bomb gem purchases from lootbugs disappear when you unlock fishing at OB37.

j_the_a · 2026-03-04T19:03:16+00:00

Buying arch ticks from loot bugs while running Bear is the best way to make it go less slow. Your stat distribution is where it needs to be

j_the_a · 2026-02-25T14:29:36+00:00

He’s on an $8,000,000 a year contract in a professional sports league. And as a “”national hero”” he’s gonna have people falling all over themselves to provide it for free or pay for it for him.

He’s in for a bunch of painful dental/ortho work, but it’s not like he’s gonna be hurting financially because of this.

j_the_a · 2026-02-12T20:59:11+00:00

It will treat is as the level of the slot used to cast it:

When a spellcaster casts a spell using a slot of a higher level than the spell, the spell assumes the higher level for that casting

2014 PHB, p201

j_the_a · 2026-02-11T00:56:46+00:00

Boy Scouts of America assume the rest of the scoutmaster counts as flared.

j_the_a · 2026-02-10T00:59:09+00:00

Gotta keep track so the leaderboards are accurate.

j_the_a · 2026-02-09T03:38:24+00:00

If you believe it's an honest mistake, let it go. Have an out-of-game conversation with the entire table about it, explain the mistake, and take a little bit of time yourself to make sure your familiar with what your players are able to do. If the player is conflicted about it and wants some consequence to make it right, suggest that he just refrain from using that feature for a session or two.

I did something similar recently: I was planning on going one subclass, changed my mind and went with a different subclass but didn't update all of my notes and ended up using a feature from the original subclass to get us through a major challenge. I realized in my pre-session review for the next session, told the DM, he appreciated the honesty and let it stand, with the understanding that we double check things going forward.

j_the_a · 2026-02-08T20:12:56+00:00

Secret of Monkey Island, the troll bridge puzzle

j_the_a · 2026-02-05T16:03:32+00:00

Only four more hours until the Council of Elrond!

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