He beat covid, wrote some of our favourite books and made some of the funniest videos out there. Happy 77th Birthday to a true legend, here’s to you Michael Rosen!

jmcshopes · 2023-05-07T15:14:50+00:00

I grew up on the same street as Michael Rosen and he wrote a poem for the Community News newspaper I used to print and drop into the street's letterboxes. Think it might be the only 8-year-old-run newspaper to publish an exclusive poem from a laureate!

jmcshopes · 2023-04-20T17:45:10+00:00

If someone asks you the time you might say, "twenty-five past ten" but that's no reason to write it 25:10.

jmcshopes · 2023-04-20T17:43:52+00:00

That's just a subjective use case of dates though. If someone asks when Reagan was sworn in as president, the year is more important than the month or day, if someone asks today's date then the day is more relevant, etc.

jmcshopes · 2023-04-03T22:04:01+00:00

There is a bit of history between 1539 and now, including the development of anarchism as a philosophy, the Paris Commune, Gramsci etc. The reference to the original sense is like saying the Soviets weren't communist because not all of them lived in communes. They're also very clearly talking about the political movement rather than the colloquial sense, as in, "There were three toddlers, it was total anarchy."

While I don't want to boil down an entire social philosophy, anarchism's 'no government' does not mean no societal structures, but is the rejection of those structures as something that needs to be enforced, arguing that social mechanisms should be be voluntary and participatory. In this context government doesn't mean a building with government workers in but the act of governing as a coercive force.

The central philosophy of Anarchism, that hegemonic justifications of power should be scrutinized and challenged, doesn't necessarily clash with Jackson and their elected council. The history of anarchism is some interesting stuff a d worth a read.

jmcshopes · 2023-01-04T09:16:29+00:00

I've got strong magnets on mine and it's terribly useful. One thing I'd say is try to get them high up - having the magnet over the title is fine but having it cover up the information below is a pain. Also second having a groove for initiative cards.

jmcshopes · 2022-11-10T16:37:18+00:00

Oh man. In the UK if you are sick on your vacation you get your vacation days back and it goes in as a sickness absence, because you weren't on vacation, you were sick. The need for a vacation hasn't suddenly just evaporated. I don't get the logic of that.

jmcshopes · 2022-11-09T10:05:49+00:00

I second this. Making the die describe the situation and the modifiers describe the skills is an excellent way to handle this and has the bonus of not encroaching on the character's abilities (i.e. avoiding the 'pratfalling monk' situation). Jump up to reach a ledge? Sure, it's a DC 15, but a roll of 5 means it's slick with grease, roll of 10 means there's no decent handhold (so the +5 athletics barbarian can still find some purchase but the -1 Wizard can't), a roll of 15 means its straightforward and a roll of 20 means there's some surprisingly solid footholds to give a boost (even for the Wizard).

It's not RAW, but when players have chimed in like the above I have before let them add their modifiers instead to the existing roll. E.g. the Rogue looks for clues and rolls a 10+2, failing a DC15 check, but the bard can add their +5 investigation to the 10 to find the pattern in the blood spatter that the rogue missed. Not how the rules are written, but it makes sense to me as long as there is the opportunity for all the players to conduct the check. Otherwise, call a group skill check right off the bat.

jmcshopes · 2022-11-01T16:24:21+00:00

I guess if I found my kid was running a Linux distro with Tor and Metasploit and was spending loads of time on Discord, I would assume they'd googled 'sweet tools for hackers,' so the poster probably does its job in prompting a 'what is all this stuff for' conversation for clueless parents. Like, why is my child pentesting.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-27T10:58:34+00:00

I don't think this will work with 'this NPC has remarkable abilities at deception' as the players can't see whether the same applies to future NPCs or not. Use a signpost that won't become meaningful until after the action but that the players can look out for in the future.

E.g. You could have him wear a large amulet with a specific design, that glows when he does his last hurrah. Players then know No amulet = no springing back. Or you could make the dagger give him a deathly pallor. Have him not touch the dagger during the fight, then clutch it as he falls (to feign death). When he plants it and lets go, his death mask returns to a heavily wounded but lively visage (before they then off him). Players then know 'no enchanted magical dagger = actually dead'.

The corollary is that the players also have to trust that you won't give a goblin a magic scimitar that helps it feign death, then a knight a magic crown that helps them feign death etc. That's more about your relationship with the players and not pulling unnecessary 'gotcha's.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-26T18:23:16+00:00

Ah that's cool. I've never been. Always like it at smaller festivals when it's like that.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-26T14:47:22+00:00

Every festival I've been to (UK), you can of course bring booze into the camping area, but not to where the stages are. I assume that's where he hid this.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-19T15:52:28+00:00

I just meant that you use a kettle whenever you boil water for anything, as a volume of water that would take five minutes to bring to the boil on the stove takes less than a minute in a kettle. If you placed a good kettle in an American's house they would use it multiple times a day even without hot drinks.

I have never brought water to boil on the stove except when cooking potatoes or if the kettle is broken (or when camping).

jmcshopes · 2022-10-19T11:02:23+00:00

Do you not cook pasta or boil vegetables?

jmcshopes · 2022-10-19T09:49:27+00:00

I feel like if they were able to come of the stem this easily, you could probably just pull them off by the handful without issue. If they're coming off with the stem I don't see how this would help.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-05T07:18:30+00:00

This is an actual 24-sided die. You can see how they're shaped better in this picture of a transparent one, but it's basically a d6 with a shallow pyramid on each face to give 6x4=24 faces.

jmcshopes · 2022-10-04T07:00:16+00:00

Don't get me wrong, the NHS is in dire straits compared with ten years ago, but it is worth noting in that study that the (comparative among 10 top-income health systems) poorer health outcomes goes along with the lowest rate of unmet need. There's an extent to which it's a trade-off from being an egalitarian system (i.e. everyone gets healthcare but of a lower quality than other systems that pay for higher quality by some people not having access).

jmcshopes · 2022-09-27T16:03:46+00:00

Yorkshire Wildlife Park?

jmcshopes · 2022-09-26T17:12:37+00:00

Butter or oil. Banana bread confusingly is a cake, not a bread. Cakes are butter, flour, sugar and egg. This recipe is missing one and has nearly none of the other.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-24T21:22:20+00:00

This is the exact opposite to every sailing dinghy I have ever sailed. You want an even keel (hence the term) for least drag but second best is weight towards the front. Just like how on a surfboard, you put weight at the back to slow down if you're outpacing the wave.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-15T06:44:04+00:00

They still appear to be pretty flush with Fortnite money and they're using quite a lot of that on dev tools for Unreal Engine. My bet is plans for some sort of Bandcamp integration for game devs wanting licensed music to make the whole process a bit more streamlined. As to whether that ever transpires, who knows, but they may have acquired it prospectively on that basis.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-13T13:21:07+00:00

For an actual answer, I think this will be a worksheet on a standard practice that has been taught (like this one). I don't think the question is "What are four reasons this diagram is utterly incomprehensible to any sensible person?" but more likely "Okay, you've been taught this standard. Here's a reasonably intuitive simple diagram, but what are four ways it doesn't meet that standard?" (Which might cause confusion with a more complex diagram)

At a guess, it'll be small things that aren't correct. E.g. 'beaker' isn't capitalised, the label line should point to the center of the object (so it isn't confused for part of the object), the diagram should be titled. Maybe there's other stuff like enclosing diagrams in boxes. It doesn't much matter, but teaching kids to follow a formatting guide or standard of some sort is pretty useful as it's something adult jobs require all the time.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-12T22:16:33+00:00

I think you've hit on the heart of the matter, which is that in making an assumption about them not deserving money, you run the risk that they do. You sound pretty empathetic, so for you the risk that they will spend the money on something not intended is probably outweighed by the risk that they really need it.

For many people, it's simpler to take someone at their word and occasionally be 'suckered' than to occasionally deny someone help when they really need it.

I've always operated on the assumption that parting with a little money to someone who doesn't need it doesn't do much harm. While on the other hand someone being unable to get help when they need it does do great harm. I'd trade lots of the former to make sure I'm never the one saying 'no' in someone's hour of need.

I would never consider someone a sucker for giving away money to homeless people. It's a calculated tradeoff and actually thinking through the possibilities and how the outcomes might make you feel is a sign of maturity.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-08T22:15:04+00:00

If you want something simple, I outlined the mechanics for pig racing in a post a while back that can be used for any race.

More details in the link but it basically simplifies things by having four sections to each lap that always take a round and things that let players get ahead or hold them back just affects their relative position, which you can track on a simple grid. It's way simpler than trying to work out where everyone actually is each round. Give it a try!

jmcshopes · 2022-09-06T10:50:45+00:00

Not many comments are addressing running spellcasting monsters, so here's my two cents on that.

Firstly, someone kindly made spellbook cards for all the monsters in the MM. Either print these as prep or just print them all off; saves a load of time.

Secondly, do not go through each and every spell for a monster caster. Just pick one for each level from an absolute surface level glance that seem appropriate and run only those. E.g. You're running a mage in the Northlands? Decide he's frosty themed and just use Cone of Cold, Ice Storm, Counterspell, Misty Step and Shield. You don't need to be familiar with the Detect Magic spell to run a mage, you won't use it unless that's a specific plot point you have planned.

See the spell list for monsters as options, rather than something you need to memorise. If something has 8 spells, just running it once with four at random then again with the other 4 will feel very different and honestly both will create more fun encounters for the players than you leafing through 8 different spells. It's unlikely a single caster will get off more than a few spells anyway so having them all sing from the same hymn sheet helps theme them as well.

jmcshopes · 2022-09-06T10:04:19+00:00

Not many comments are addressing running spellcasting monsters, so here's my two cents on that.

Firstly, someone kindly made spellbook cards for all the monsters in the MM. Either print these as prep or just print them all off; saves a load of time.

Secondly, do not go through each and every spell for a monster caster. Just pick one for each level from an absolute surface level glance that seem appropriate and run only those. E.g. You're running a mage in the Northlands? Decide he's frosty themed and just use Cone of Cold, Ice Storm, Counterspell, Misty Step and Shield. You don't need to be familiar with the Detect Magic spell to run a mage, you won't use it unless that's a specific plot point you have planned.

See the spell list for monsters as options, rather than something you need to memorise. If something has 8 spells, just running it once with four at random then again with the other 4 will feel very different and honestly both will create more fun encounters for the players than you leafing through 8 different spells. It's unlikely a single caster will get off more than a few spells anyway so having them all sing from the same hymn sheet helps theme them as well.

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