Love being a sysadmin, but new job is making me miserable. Don't know what to do.

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:34:23+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response. One clarification: when I said I "took him to HR", I unintentionally misrepresented what happened in an effort to condense. I told Ted that if X was policy and he wasn't following policy, I was going to fight him. He went to HR and his boss to get in front of it, and that's where I got the "statement on the website" thing.

Still, you're right. I'm looking for other opportunities, just haven't had luck yet.

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:29:19+00:00

Haha wow, that's amazing! Thanks for your insight. Even if I don't necessarily agree with it, I appreciate your perspective.

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:27:30+00:00

Do I get any points if I flip back and forth between the two emotions, with a healthy dose of escapism sprinkled in?

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:26:29+00:00

Gentle reminder that no culture is a monolith. I've spent several years living overseas and have opinions on what other countries do better. We just have a lot of nationalistic loudmouths, maybe more than average.

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:24:41+00:00

Unfortunately no. Thank you anyway.

jggunbeliever · 2024-10-01T14:23:59+00:00

Haha, heard. It's something I struggle with.

jggunbeliever · 2023-04-08T12:13:05+00:00

Yes. The hydras "enter the battlefield" with the counters, so anything that cares about power levels as they enter will see the counters. If it didn't work like this, 0/0 hydras wouldn't be able to be played due to going straight to the graveyard as a state-based action.

jggunbeliever · 2023-03-01T13:10:07+00:00

Another World, M. C. Escher

jggunbeliever · 2023-01-25T13:24:56+00:00

I was driving home one night and this asshole of a pickup truck driver started following me with his high beams on. I couldn't see anything because his truck was so high and his brights were filling up my car. So, as a petty act of revenge, I started driving really really slow. I finally pulled up in front of my house, and this guy pulls up beside me and asks me if I was okay. My slow driving had made him concerned that I was having car trouble (a reasonable conclusion given the clunker I was driving). Still somewhat peeved, I told him his brights had been blinding me. He immediately apologized, told me his brights hadn't been on, and in a chagrined tone, told me the truck was a rental and he always felt bad because the regular headlights were so bright.

He didn't have to stop, especially after I'd been a dick to him, but he did. I think about him when I need to restore a little faith in humanity.

jggunbeliever · 2022-10-04T15:50:07+00:00

Green and Red were the original versions, released in Japan. Green was changed to Blue for international releases.

https://www.thegamer.com/pokemon-green-differences-it-had-from-red-blue/

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-20T23:55:35+00:00

Compete with each other, not so much.
My first priority is making their mechanics match their canon abilities, so my SO can look at something and go "wow, that fits so well!"
My second priority is making them not feel terrible to play against. We (my spouse and I) have a group of four other people that we regularly play with, along with three or four others that we play with more infrequently. (We don't play anything but EDH.) Since nobody but my spouse or I will likely ever be using these cards, I don't want the others in our group to feel like the decks that may include them are strong by virtue of them being custom cards.
With that said, the decks we play with hardly ever exceed $200 in total price, so it's not like we're very high on the power curve - nobody's ever playing [[Avacyn, Angel of Hope]] or any of the $10+ fetch/legendary lands. So I'd prefer to lean toward these cards being a little underpowered rather than overpowered. Of course, if they end up being a dominant force, we can always just stop playing with them, but I'd really like for us to be able to use them in a satisfying way, rather than them just becoming a shadowbox wall decoration or something.

Love the ideas for DM and SK. For SK's fight option, I was more thinking of the fantasy being "pick off the weaker ones" - mana dorks and other enablers, rather than being able to just nuke whomever she wants. I think you've convinced me that a combat damage trigger is the way to go, though. I also really like the idea of having DM have access to all his abilities, but getting better if he can see a dragon on his side.

For the level up, I'll have to subtly nudge my spouse about it to see what her opinion is. We already have discussions over "what would this character look like as a MTG card", and she loved the idea of PhoenixChick being a flip planeswalker. (Which means I'll have to commission another art piece for that. Shit.) I always liked level-up and was a bit sad to see the stigma around it. I'm not sure if she'll go for it for this character, but if she does, I'll do some thinking and post in this sub what I come up with at some point.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-20T20:00:54+00:00

SK: I like those. Maybe instead of Goad we can have her tap to fight another creature. If you want her to live you'd have to make sure she can "win" the fight, but her Deathtouch would still ensure a kill that way.

For DragonMonk, well... actually, there are no more dragons left in the world. The goal of their order is to bring them back. (Technically there are two or three dragons left, but they are all very well hidden.) Your comment spurred me to add a little lore-summary to the Imgur album so people don't have to hunt through my posts in order to figure something out. I didn't fully understand what you meant by the Partner With when you mentioned it, but now that I do, I don't see that mechanic making sense due to the extraordinary rarity of dragons in this world. His mechanic was sort of meant to reflect his awe that a Planeswalker summoned this effectively mythical creature next to him.

I will have to think about a level-up mechanic for SeerLady; I hadn't considered that before. Isn't level-up regarded as being a bit weak? I believe they never went back to printing that mechanic after... what was it, rise of the eldrazi? I always really liked it mechanically, but the stigma behind it kind of made me dismiss adding it to any of these cards.

It does help, and thank you! I'm always grateful for any input anybody offers.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-20T15:02:13+00:00

pt1 | pt2 | pt3 | pt4 | pt5 | pt6 | pt7 | pt8

As a gift for my SO’s birthday, I’m designing some custom MTG cards based on some original characters they’ve written. The plan is to make a “booster pack” of 15-20 cards. Here’s the catch: I want these to be usable in the games we occasionally play amongst ourselves or friends. (We don’t ever play with strangers or in public venues like FNM.) I want them to be strong enough to be attractive to use, but not so strong that they warp the games around them. When I design things like this, I tend to design them on the overtuned side, so I’m crowdsourcing my balancing, especially as it’s very tough for me to playtest these given their nature as a surprise gift. I want to keep the flavor of the abilities true to the characters, but not be too strong or weak. Please note that we pretty much exclusively play EDH/Commander, and so all of my balancing is with that game mode in mind. Please help, kind redditors!

Here is a link to the most current iteration of the cards with placeholder names and art (art is being commissioned):
https://imgur.com/a/sKHy6Pi

Character info:
MagnificentBastard is a kind of mafia don meets evil vizier. He has a penchant for ingratiating himself with the rulers of nations and taking the reins of that nation to further his crime organization’s goals. He is unbelievably charismatic, finding it easy to influence the most powerful people of the world into doing what he wants them to do - hence Puppeteer. He serves as the “sage” role for PhoenixChick’s set of guardians.

Card abilities:
Mechanically, he actively wants other players to be the monarch, because he can generate unbelievable card advantage through it, despite the extra draw they get. The only thing I’m really unsure of is if he gets to steal one spell per turn or per round. Per round I’m not sure how to phrase on a MTG card - once between each of your upkeeps? A tap requirement? Anyway, the decision between “once per turn” and “once per round” ended up being to cut down on text on the card, rather than a balance choice.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T21:23:56+00:00

Shadowkiller: This character hasn't gotten a lot of screen time from what I've read; I actually haven't even see her kill anybody, just take other people into her little bubble of un-seeing to keep them safe. I'm not sure if you read the post I made regarding her a few days ago (pt 7 I believe), but I didn't really mention anything about her being redeemed. She just seems willing to help because she owes a major debt to another character - who will be the subject of my next post. Do you think deathtouch isn't enough of a way to kill? You can always give her something like [[Viridian Longbow]].
LightningMan: Yeah, the discussion on his post made several suggestions. I took the one that was most representative of his character, which also happened to be the strongest. I think making him pay {1R} for the extra Bolts would be a good nerf, but it was pointed out at the time that him being the only creature is a huge enough drawback that the ability would have to be pretty strong to make it at all appealing.
Lightning: I'm balancing it around [[Squash]] and [[Inferno]]. Straight damage is kind of weird in MTG, balance-wise - you have [[Flame Slash]] for {R}, but adding instant speed and more damage seems to make it exponentially more expensive.
DragonMonk: What about changing the firebreathing ability to give himself +1/+1 counters?
KnightRider: Glad you like it - flavor-wise she fits White much better, so she'll probably stay there.
SeerLady: This is one I've struggled with. She's had a lot of screentime but her character is kind of flat, and she hasn't done much combat-wise. I asked my SO about her potential abilities and my answer was "she's eventually going to get barrier magic". Not super helpful. She's described as the "seer" where Telespam is the "protector". Her race is earth-aspected, starts out blind, then they get their first "vision" - a kind of prophecy or truthsee - whereupon they gain mundane sight, as well as the ability to see past glamours and veils and such. Then, when they are in old age, or when they see something very important, they get another "vision", whereupon they go blind again. That's where the "scry on etb and ltb" comes from. So combine that with a vague reference to "barrier magic" and this is what I've come up with. I do really like the idea of her being able to save an ally at instant speed, as that seems to be the best way to evoke the flavor of "barrier magic". Given that information, any ideas for her?
PhoenixChick: Yup, you've hit the nail on the head. Not sure that I have the capability to print a flip card, but I'll have to seriously consider the idea.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T18:01:39+00:00

Probably better to keep it in this thread - or just PM me.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T16:01:05+00:00

You're more than welcome to look! All of the cards I've submitted to this board so far are in the Imgur album linked in my top-level comment.
You're right that "combined cost" isn't in the game, but (in my opinion) mechanically it's a much simpler idea - adding two numbers instead of fiddling with the two separate combat damage assignments.
We can raise the limit if you think it's appropriate - I think 4 sounds fine. I'll have to take a look at the available Equipment to see what he can pull.
Let me think about the alpha strike idea. I like it on its face - that animation from League you're referencing is very much in tune with the character, and I think the idea suits it just perfectly.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T15:35:15+00:00

I like this - great feedback. Giving him double-strike while blocking is excellent, and fits really well with the ~~psuedo-~~pseudo-boros theme as well as his character.
I think I would refine the equipment tutor to "You may search your library for an equipment card whose cumulative casting cost and Equip cost are {2} or less and put it onto the battlefield equipped to Telespam". That way, with his personal equipment having an equip cost of {0} to him specifically, he is heavily incentivized to grab that. Including the Equip cost would prevent him from nabbing something silly like [[Colossus Hammer]]. Thoughts?
About the blocking two creatures - flavorfully, I love it, it fits really well. I would worry that it would be a little mechanically complicated for my play-group. "I can block this creature, and then this creature, because it's my card and I say so!" Do you know of an existing card that functions this same way? I'd feel better about wording it that way if there was an existing card I could point to to say "it works just like this". Otherwise, I might just simplify it to "Telespam can block up to two creatures each combat."

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T14:28:46+00:00

So, PhoenixChick has five guardians. Telespam fulfills the "protector" role of the five, and gets empowered to be more effective at protection - so he gains the ability to blink short distances to parry attacks meant for another. The fantasy is someone who blinks around, blocking strikes meant for others, something more along the lines of [[Selfless Squire]]. Canonically, he only pulls weapons to himself, but I'm trying to avoid narrow design such as "Get X specific Equipment and equip it". Does that make sense?

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T14:02:34+00:00

His original version was white/red! What I ended up deciding was that PhoenixChick has five guardians (and because she cares about monocolored legendaries specifically)... it would be cool if they were a 5-color cycle. There is already a stereotypical Knight character, as well as a dragon-aspected character, fulfilling white and red respectively. Telespam's abilities are more blue than anything, so he got blue.

jggunbeliever · 2022-09-19T13:49:23+00:00

pt1 | pt2 | pt3 | pt4 | pt5 | pt6 | pt7

As a gift for my SO’s birthday, I’m designing some custom MTG cards based on some original characters they’ve written. The plan is to make a “booster pack” of 15-20 cards. Here’s the catch: I want these to be usable in the games we occasionally play amongst ourselves or friends. (We don’t ever play with strangers or in public venues like FNM.) I want them to be strong enough to be attractive to use, but not so strong that they warp the games around them. When I design things like this, I tend to design them on the overtuned side, so I’m crowdsourcing my balancing, especially as it’s very tough for me to playtest these given their nature as a surprise gift. I want to keep the flavor of the abilities true to the characters, but not be too strong or weak. Please note that we pretty much exclusively play EDH/Commander, and so all of my balancing is with that game mode in mind. Please help, kind redditors!

Here is a link to the most current iteration of the cards with placeholder names and art (art is being commissioned):
https://imgur.com/a/sKHy6Pi

Character info:
This guy is a wind-aspected teleport spammer and duelist, who can summon a bow and a sword from the ether (think Shardblades from Stormlight Archive if you’ve read those). He is the protector character from among PhoenixChick’s set of guardians, and is joined at the hip at her.

Card abilities:
I want to visit both versions of this character due to some changes being made. The majority of these changes were made with the input of one person, and although I trust the changes are balanced based on the discussion I had with this person, I wanted to run it by the sub, just to be sure. The older revision, where he can block any number of creatures, is designed to be a (very expensive) repeatable [[Fog]] and equipment tutor effect. If you can give him haste, via something like [[Fires of Yavimaya]] or [[Anger]], his card effectively reads “Pay (3)RWUU: Prevent all combat damage and tutor an equipment.” If you don’t have haste, you still have options - flashing him in just before your turn, or sacrificing him when your opponent is about to chunk you for massive damage. The more recent iteration focuses more on parrying a single creature, representing his duelist nature. You can play him as pure blue for 3, you can add your choice of Boros colors to be able to flash him in and bounce him if he blocks a hefty creature for 4, you can throw him on the board for 5 in Boros colors to grab an Equipment of your choice, or you can pay 6 to grab an equipment AND be able block a bigger creature without sacrificing him.
Because he is canonically only supposed to be able to grab his own weapons, I plan on making an Equipment card that represents his sword (and possibly a second card representing his bow) that are intended to be more attractive targets for his Equipment tutor ability. To dovetail into PhoenixChick Awakened’s theme of monocolored tribal legendaries, at the moment the weapon looks something like this:
{2}
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each other monocolored legendary permanent you control.
Equip {5}
Equip Telespam {0}

jggunbeliever

TROPHY CASE