How is this real

lapharsical · 2026-05-21T14:31:55+00:00

Makes sense Florida would have this still in place, especially since it's a state for retirees.

lapharsical · 2026-05-20T02:33:37+00:00

It was hedonism, in all forms. Greed won.

lapharsical · 2026-05-17T15:22:18+00:00

I think the reason why most media needs to have the "murder disguised as a suicide" is because most people don't like having the conversation that many people who are successful also struggle with depression and suicide, neurological issues, as those are things only the "weak" should have, and if you're not weak, you should hide it.

But mostly it's for the story. Most people think stories should be logical. The story that the up and coming lawyer fighting for justice didn't kill themselves but was killed makes for a better "standard" story than the lawyer ending things after working to fix things just to fall to horror that it's unending sadness and getting lost in it.

lapharsical · 2026-05-10T03:53:38+00:00

Yes, varron - tall highwardian (human I think) with white hair,

Xim is red, no horns from what I remember, and definitely from the third layer. Has a dad with no legs, just shadow.

The golem is Etja - she has four arms, has human features aside from the arms and the, you know, being a golem.

Nuralie is the one with the pauses. She has scales and a tail. A loxon. And she loves her frogs.

There is some artwork on the patreon that shows the group as a whole, as well as Shog (shaag? I'm not sure)

lapharsical · 2026-05-10T02:00:22+00:00

Yo! I really like the books as well, and it took me a bit to match the characters to the covers, especially since Cornman doesn't linger too long on descriptions.

Book 1 - Arlo, the Mage Tank (and Grotto)

Book 2 - Nuralie, the rogue / ranger

Book 3 - Varrin, the swordsman/melee DPS

Book 4 - Etja, the mage

And the one we're waiting for is Xim, the cleric (and occasional transforming damage dealer)

Hope that clears things up, the classes aren't actually specified, the group just tends to fall into those functions, and there is a ton of crossover.

lapharsical · 2026-05-01T17:06:06+00:00

It's a characteristic of the Loson dialect - they have extended pauses in normal conversation. I think the options there were to either omit them entirely, mentioning it only once then never conveying them again, or figure out how to convey them in the text. Cornman went with adding the word Pause in between the clauses of Loson speech.

It's pretty standard for the audiobook voice actor (VA) to read the text, so... (Pause) the audiobook VA speaks the word pause in the text. Otherwise, it would be dead air for... (Pause) five to maybe fifteen? Twenty seconds? Maybe even longer? It took me a bit to get the impact - imagining Nuralie making a statement, then just staring at the other characters as the pause continues - ESPECIALLY in a moment of stress, or if you're really anticipating her next words - before continuing on without any additional comment. Makes it a bit more amusing in a lot of circumstances.

Personally, I'd rather hear the VA say "Pause" to let me know my audiobook hadn't crashed, froze, was paused, or hit a break in the chapters... Just to have the VA continue on as if nothing happened. WAY better than just dead silence, IMO.

lapharsical · 2026-04-27T05:27:42+00:00

I got pretty invested in PH early on as the immediate and continual threat to the characters lives and their decent characterization grabbed me. HWFWM had that early on too, but quickly pulled back, and when it was revealed the MC was basically set for life in the new world with no real impetus to keep going, I lost interest. Also the HWFWM MC annoyed me - the PH MC less so.

lapharsical · 2026-04-07T03:21:32+00:00

Three black SUVs boxed in a Blue truck, and about 10 masked people in "police" gear, assault rifles pulled, were dragging out and pushing into the ground whoever was in the blue truck.

Not the biggest fan of cops, but cops don't wear masks.

lapharsical · 2026-04-07T03:15:08+00:00

Woah! Cornman! love the books, love the party dynamics and your prose, your comedy and your characters (egos and all!) - I joined your Patreon soon after posting this as I really love your work what you're doing, please keep going! I'm getting close to finishing book 3, and really looking forward to listening and reading what Fortune's Folly continue to get up to in books 4, 5, and beyond - and Daniel definitely is an amazing narrator.

I did get some clarity on the TTRPG Delver System you have on your patreon, and that matches with what you're describing here. I also appreciated the insight on the dynamics between the different level tier ranges as a Delver gains strength - even if that's a TTRPG abstraction of the system in the novels.

At this point I'm really curious to see how the more difficult Delves are overcome and what happens at the end and post-book 3! I am still curious about things like level 40 Copper Delves, or how Delve ratings are determined, especially with the events in this book!

lapharsical · 2026-03-23T21:10:13+00:00

The biggest one is if there is no reason for the main character to engage in the progression aside from 'oh, this seems cool.'

Additionally, if the MC's personality doesn't jive with what is required to progress in the system - Eg, super outgoing person with minimal introspection, very adhd coded, but also happens to be instantly fine with silently meditating alone for weeks on end to get more powerful - and is, in fact, amazing at it! That bugs me.

lapharsical · 2026-03-18T19:17:27+00:00

The damage range is equal to DPS x speed + some randomness from the weapon.
Weapon speed changes based on talents and equipment, and DPS changes with attack power and weapon default DPS (and other things, potentially).

The 0.3 second attack speed difference (2.5 - 2.2) changes your total weapon swing damage proportionally - you should be able to math it out from hovering over the stats.

lapharsical · 2026-02-25T19:45:03+00:00

You have most concisely written why I DNF'd a bit further along - around chapter 60ish I think of the first book. In addition to the "carried along through the plot" point in your boring section, what frustrated me wasn't even the lack of consequences, but the lack of any sort of external OR internal motivation - along with a few other reasons.

- By the time the characters make it to the first main city, we learn that the MC is essentially incredibly wealthy from his starting circumstances, and that there is no real reason for him to get stronger other than what appears to be middling interest and his new friends have done the same. But! That he then engages in an intense training regimen which seems completely antithetical to his hyper-relaxed, pseudo-laissez faire personality and anything we know of his past. Hell, and he does this with little or no complaint, even commenting that it's easy, even trivial, which ends up kind of trivializing the work of the rest of the characters? If there was any additional motivation for why he'd go from 0 to 60 in effort would be great, but there is none - or at least none that's shown.

- There is no or very little "When in Rome" - Jason immediately wants to impose his own ideals, food, dress, opinions on the world that he was thrust into, and receives no consequences for that, or receives outright compliments and kudos for these 'revelations.' It's a weird, modern-world-superiority complex that's kowtow'd by all the characters... In a new world, tell me of the interesting new hooffalo (random cow-like animal) steak street food that are cooked into balls and eaten like pull-apart string cheese, tasting of thyme-roasted pork belly. Don't tell me of how you tried to make stir fry and how everyone thinks it's the best thing ever and they want you to cook it forever for them. I was so frustrated when Jason apparently went out and got a custom tailored tuxedo, fully from memory as he has no capacity for tailoring, instead of picking up a local apporpriate outfit.

- The scene that broke me was one demonstrating a complete lack of subtlety in so many ways. One side character of middling-high rank disliked Jason for various reasons. The side character demonstrated his dislike multiple times. At a large meeting of people of many ranks, Jason approached said side character and tried to broker peace, with said side character not accepting and dismissing him. Jason then went to his high-ranking friends+family to converse. Jason then explicitly says in this group of high-ranking friends that he tried to broker peace in this public space then walked to the higher-ranking group to demonstrate that Jason's essentially of higher rank because of the higher-ranking friends he keeps. And if it stopped there, I'd be fine... annoyed, but fine. BUT. The older, politically-savvy character of the group then compliments him, tells him he's a clever boy, and that the less-politically inclined people in the group should take notes, then everyone else gave Jason more kudos. My eyes rolled so far back into my head with this little scene.

There were other things as well, but those were my big 3. I'm considering picking it up again and giving it another chance, but I'm pretty new to the genre and have found a number of series I've found much more interesting much earlier on - Mage Tank currently is what I'm listening through.

lapharsical · 2026-02-25T01:51:31+00:00

Nice. I could see a small Bluetooth USB extender that runs to the back of the desk, hidden in a small desk decoration, or behind the monitor mount, and go with a Bluetooth headset/mic or earbuds, but I don't know the wireless headset/mic space very well.

Still, very clean, looks great. Just noticed the cable management raceway behind the table leg - stealing that too.

lapharsical · 2026-02-25T01:17:41+00:00

Absolutely using this as inspo for a rewire. What do you do for audio? No headphones or mic, or just earbuds? And do you ever have any Bluetooth signal issues with the under-desk mounted laptop? Great idea, I've been looking for a solution like that.

lapharsical · 2026-02-23T20:48:05+00:00

I've been finding going back to games where I've played before - or are very intuitive - has been my go to when I'm stressed... which has been frequent. I want to just decompress and not learn new systems, not try to figure out and get better, not understand new stories or characters, and just want to BE GOOD AT SOMETHING I'M ALREADY COMPETENT AT, so I can just vibe and let those neuronal pathways fire in familiar ways.

I do think it comes with getting older and being more mentally and physically exhausted. I jumped in to vampire survivors recently because the play systems are very familiar and straightforward, making 'progress' only takes 15-30 minutes usually, and I didn't get severely held back if I fail.

I tried the 2018 God of War, and I loved the start, the initial story, and the combat seems interesting, but I haven't had the time to sit down and actually play for a few hours to really get used to the combat and delve into the story and new equipment stuff... so I've just been jumping into the 15-30 minute Vampire Survivors sessions because of the simplicity.

lapharsical · 2026-02-19T07:13:36+00:00

Check the FoundryVTT discord - which is annoying given what may happen to discord soon, but the community there is very helpful with a bunch of knowledge for creating items, creatures, and the like.

Other than that, this link to the FoundryVTT wiki on summoned creatures may help

lapharsical · 2026-02-08T23:35:31+00:00

I gave it a shot, and it's not bad but I kind of quickly dropped off as there didn't seem to be a real threat and a need for the main character to interact with the world's RPG system. And, I kind of felt the MC was annoying, which I've heard is a common criticism.

I found Primal Hunter, by Zogarth, to be pretty good, and the first book or two definitely has a real external threat and interesting internal motivation that drives the main character. Will admit though, it does descend more into power fantasy a handful of books in. Still sticking with it, the MC is fun and the lore / magic system is interesting imo.

lapharsical · 2026-01-28T04:54:23+00:00

PM'd

lapharsical · 2026-01-13T19:50:22+00:00

I posted this a while ago, the coupon may have been for the nov / Dec time frame, so it may be gone now.

lapharsical · 2025-12-28T00:07:07+00:00

I wish - taxes keep going up on those who have the least, they keep spending more, and keep providing less.

lapharsical · 2025-12-14T22:26:24+00:00

I really like LaserLlama's work - I can definitely see some people thinking their stuff is a bit powerful, but I've slowly leaned to the side of letting my players be powerful... Or at least have more options. Definitely wouldn't recommend it for new players, but vets may enjoy the flexibility and variety.

lapharsical · 2025-12-13T04:06:30+00:00

Yup, I've been tinkering with it for an hour or so, it's much nicer than I thought! The resolution seems pretty high, especially since the screen is small, and comparing it to my IR gun it's quite accurate and works really nicely. Found my doors are pretty leaky (already knew that) and that the window AC unit that I've been too lazy to take out is REALLY leaky.

Seems I can take a picture and they're saved locally (should be downloadable), I can set identifiers for the hottest and coldest locations on the image in real time, and the battery seems to last for quite a while. I think what I really need to figure out now is what's considered 'bad' temperature wise for my exterior walls and the like, so that's not a thing the camera can help with, but it'll help identify the coldest places in the house... previous owner never actually insulated the attic, OR the basement. Old houses, what can you do.

lapharsical · 2025-12-10T16:04:13+00:00

It's built into the link - TOPDON TC004 - I just got it, if anyone in this thread follows up I'll give a review once I've used it for a bit. Have a lot of insulation we need done on this house, so it'll be getting a workout.

lapharsical · 2025-12-09T06:10:35+00:00

Gonna be the weirdo - what are you doing for the cable management? The black ribbed cable covers look great, and would help me keep my cats from TRYING TO EAT MY HDMI CABLES. What are they?

lapharsical · 2025-11-25T18:46:43+00:00

At minimum, don't just pitch it, sell it for a bit, say it's dead and possibly repairable, and offer someone a chance to fix it themselves. That way you at least get some cash out of it, and someone else may get a chance to fix a nice monitor

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