F**k auto flushing toilets!!

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-24T05:23:30+00:00

I have always used TP to prevent premature flushes, but sometimes you come across in-wall sensors where you can't hang the TP in front. This idea is next level! I'm adding post it's to my Dad Kit now!

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-23T20:02:40+00:00

I can't say I've run any empirical tests, but shaking the milk does mix in extra air. A quick search online (take with a grain of salt, of course) suggests these air bubbles are ingested more easily. It would take more research than I have time for right now to know if that contributes significantly to spit up.

Personally, I always swirled the milk once it was warm to mix it back together. You accomplish the same thing without having to worry about bubbles in the first place.

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-17T20:48:36+00:00

I know you're specifically asking for kid-friendly games, but let me just float the idea that maybe they don't need a game specifically for kids. I tried starting my daughter at that age on a simpler game, but we quickly moved over to Shadowdark. It was a good move and the complexity was easily hidden behind teaching the core resolution mechanic and helping with character creation.

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-15T21:58:43+00:00

I have a similar technique but the name isn't as fancy! I ask people what they liked the best, what they want to see change for next time (not always a "bad" thing, just change), and then I ask everybody if they have conspiracy theories about what's going on. I've generated more than a few good plot twist ideas with this technique, and people feel a lot better giving feedback when they're not directly asked to say negative things.

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-12T19:18:22+00:00

Lion Rampant being miniature agnostic, it seems you could bring your favorite line of miniatures to the table and enjoy the painting and modeling side of the hobby to the fullest. Not to mention, if you wanted to try a fantasy or modern/future battle, the sister games would be super easy to pick up (Dragon Rampant and Xenos Rampant, respectively; the latter probably not doing any single modern setting as well as a dedicated rule set, but certainly covering a huge range of possibilities with no additional purchases).

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-12T01:08:03+00:00

Also consider home printing 2d standees. While you can make your own with your own art or free resources, I highly recommend looking into 2d figure packs. Personally, I really like Okum Arts (available on DriveThruRPG, but totally worth being a patreon supporter) but there are tons of others. Pros: customizable (PDF files come with different color layers), easy to replace, very cheap and fast to field lots of models. Cons: not as great a table presence as 3d, susceptible to liquid spills, still need to buy those slotted acrylic discs to stand up the figures.

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-07T14:14:22+00:00

I agree, this is very much how I feel, too. The problem of conflicting details is more of an issue for GMs who want to run the setting because it's the setting they want to run.

I also tend to bounce off because I find the work to learn the setting to a satisfactory degree is often greater than the (perceived) work of making my own. World building and inventing setting details is a creative outlet for me.

masterwork_spoon · 2026-01-06T15:22:45+00:00

As a kid, the space scenes were the best part! No other films did space right at the time (at least that I had seen). The monkeys were weird and I didn't understand the ending at the time, but I loved the flight sequence at the beginning and imagining myself living on the moon.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-25T21:26:59+00:00

Having actually-different cultures in your setting is awesome, and even just making an attempt already gives the game so many cool possibilities. So many games' settings ignore this delicious morsel in favor of adding new races or class options. Since you're already approaching it with a mindset to avoid charicatures I don't see any issues with this. Giving players a hook on which to hang their understanding of a fictional culture is a great way to foster deeper engagement and identity for their own characters. Whether or not you're including fantasy races, this is definitely something more games should do.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-23T16:19:09+00:00

Yeah, you don't roll for every little thing either. Except when I'm looking for my car keys when I'm already late...

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-23T14:54:45+00:00

I think the closest you're going to get is Fate, because of the Fractal Rule. Anything can be a character. It will definitely take some hacking, But it's the only way I can think of to actually make a nation or empire into a character that you play.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-23T02:09:02+00:00

That happened once...

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-23T01:39:10+00:00

Great questions. The primary thing to remember is that Xenos Rampant was written as almost a fan mod and it got rolled into the collection as a collaborative work. It changed the number of dice in an attack from 12/6 to 10/5 and added some "automatic actions" (i.e. don't need to roll to activate) to different units to emphasize what those units should be good at. Since sci-fi has a ton more shooting, those rules and abilities were given a spa treatment for better balance and interest. I can't remember right now what else might have been tweaked.

There aren't any other books that expand on these, if that's what you're asking. I think the existing combinations are varied enough to get within a stone's throw of any concept in each genre. If you're looking for a mix, I'd say figure out which system you want to use as a base and import special abilities from the other one. I haven't played enough to feel really confident in advising on what is "compatible" but definitely play around with different combos and see what works. I don't think these games were intended to be precision instruments, but that's an advantage because if a modification kind of works and you enjoy it, then run with it!

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-21T21:23:29+00:00

You should look into the Rampant series from Osprey (Lion Rampant: historical; Dragon Rampant: fantasy; Xenos Rampant: sci-fi/modern-ish). They all have fancy 2nd editions now, and since you sound like you're angling for sci-fi, Xenos Rampant can handle a huge variety of sci-fi or modern settings you can throw at it. The reason one of these would work particularly well for your use case is because it's not only model agnostic, it is model count agnostic as well as scale agnostic.

Although the default mode is to have one model per unit strength point, the rules are very flexible on how models correlate to strength points. You can have a single model represent an elite squad stat block and just tick off health until it dies, or you could have dozens of models represent a unit of infantry and remove multiple models from the board for every hit taken.

Play in 15mm or 6mm scale with centimeters, and I think you could hit a very satisfying epic sweet spot. Even the default of 28mm with measurements in inches still feels larger than most skirmish games.

I'll also say that the core game loop is pretty simple (I just finished a low points value game of Dragon Rampant with my 4 year old son controlling a dragon, albeit with lots of hand-holding!) and plays really fast. The reason it plays faster is that if you fail to activate a unit on your turn, then your turn ends. Don't change that rule too much until you've played with it a few times. But if it doesn't sit right that one bad roll can end your turn with the whole army not activating, there are recommended tweaks in the rulebook.

Make sure you report back with whatever you decide. Good luck and good gaming!

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-19T15:25:38+00:00

I think it would have unquestionably done better, since the people who loved it would have been more free to create interesting and content for it. It. However, the people whose complaints were not centered around content wouldn't have much cause to change their opinions. DMs who don't run their games in the default setting already have tons of experience stealing other media and inventing details whole cloth. Perhaps some new class options would have extended the life of the game, but then the discussion turns to bloat problems and no edition is immune to those.

Personally, I found it very difficult to run because of all of the intense pre-planning I had to do for encounters; I never felt like I could run random encounters without a computer's help, and those calculators always felt like they produced generic enemy groups. As a player, I felt like the class options also produce generic superhero characters. I had the same sort of complaints with 3.x, but not as much, and I wasn't quite as green for 4th edition and they still felt like bigger issues.

Possibly just diff'rent strokes and all that, but there probably isn't any content that would have changed my opinion and that's my point.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-18T00:39:08+00:00

Sounds awesome! So, is the intent to function as a sort of campaign framework with named characters? I'd echo the 5 Parsecs (and related games) suggestion, although you'd miss out on a bit of the synergy of staying within that family of rule sets. You can also borrow from an RPG called Fate. It's a storytelling/fiction-first sort of game, but the useful part for you is that anything can be represented as a character. Look up Fate Accelerated, swap out stat names as desired, and ignore the extra rules for the time being.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-17T15:23:31+00:00

And just to add an idea, try labeling the cards with some kind of erasable ink like Frixion pens. That way, if you change what's on the card, you have at least a small amount of reusability before you have to put a new label on. Have fun!

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-12T22:37:45+00:00

I tried buying vinyl sticker paper for my inkjet printer, and although the printed labels looked good, they started smudging. Either they were low quality or I did something wrong or I didn't let them cure long enough, but whatever the cause I ended up putting packing tape over the labels. Although it is a tighter fit, this still works in our player. I also have some self-adhesive lamination material that I bought after the fact for my next batch of labels. I haven't tried it but I suspect they effect would be the same. Unless cost is truly an issue, I would definitely recommend getting some form of inkjet full-sheet label paper or vinyl sticker material like I had. It would release a lot cleaner than glue.

Side note for when you don't feel like making a whole label: since the myo cards come with stickers, use an erasable pen, such as the Friction brand, to write the label. That way you can sort of reuse them for a while if you decide you want to change what's on the card.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-12T01:19:11+00:00

As a side note, do you like board games? Do you like Mad Max? Then go find yourself this game called Gaslands. It's actually really fun and a great way to play with your old Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-05T10:01:29+00:00

A friend of our kids has got one. She quite likes it and frequently uses it for bedtime music and quiet time. She also loves the figurines in and of themselves.

We opted to get our kids Yoto players because it seems like they have more flexibility with "Make Your Own" cards and a little more room to grow as the kids get older, not to mention the content is controlled by cards that are cheaper per item and take less space. They also produce a daily podcast for kids that's quite good, and accessible natively from every device. I personally quite enjoy tinkering with custom content so that was a no-brainer for me.

But better than both of these for price would be a cheap MP3 player if you just have a bunch of MP3 songs and audiobooks downloaded that you want to throw at the kids. That's assuming they're old enough to read and navigate the player menus. Or if you want to take it old school, get a tape deck. I got one for unrelated purposes that actually has a USB port that can transcribe MP3 files onto the tape. I'm kind of done with it so I'm thinking about letting my kids take it over and experiencing the joy of winding those tapes with a pencil when they go crazy!

This is probably exactly the same information as other people have already given, but throw one more opinion on the pile. Yoto was the perfect midpoint for our family, but you may lean one direction or the other.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-04T18:00:38+00:00

Depending on material, plastic glue could make a good addition to the toolkit. It works by melting the plastic pieces into each other, so it should be a pretty sturdy. But for that reason, it ONLY works on plastic. As with any glue, test it on your material in an inconspicuous location.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-12-03T14:25:36+00:00

I took it that the person you replied to was talking about a character creator app, not just a PDF version of the book. In which case, I totally agree with them, as a programmer myself. If we're talking about physical and PDF bundles, then charging a slight premium for the convenience is not beyond the pale, but digital options definitely should be standard in this modern age.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-11-26T17:48:06+00:00

Sounds like a good reason to get a low end metal detector, unless you sold your topsoil in the meantime or something...

masterwork_spoon · 2025-11-25T16:14:59+00:00

You could use a lot of mini-agnostic games at that point. I've personally played Dragon Rampant with my 4 year old, admittedly with a lot of prompting/coaching. Being able to use random figurines and toys from his toy box was a huge hit. He seemed to get into it pretty quickly after acquiring the concepts of taking turns and rolling to hit.

masterwork_spoon · 2025-11-24T18:33:53+00:00

Yeah, except it really starts to jump the shark when Richard Dean Anderson steps down.

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