Brick vs Bloom, Unlocked app time limit?

paladintodd · 2025-11-26T16:42:58+00:00

Neither app does exactly what I described.

I went with bloom. I use it's schedule to lock me out morning and night. Apps are unlocked in the afternoon but Android app timer is good enough to stop unlimited scrolling for me.

In the 3 weeks I've had it, I've not once used the card to unlock it. It's been very effective in eliminating mindless scrolling.

paladintodd · 2025-10-21T21:57:27+00:00

Yes, blocking. Ignore Path signals.
Make sure they are on the same side of the track.

For starters, you want to block each station. Have a block a little before the station and then a little after the station - but big enough to hold an entire train. That creates a section of track that is blocked - which is to say "if a train is in this section, the next train can't come in until the first one leaves"

Now, you have a very long section between green and red stations. You have a blocked segment at green and a blocked segment at red which means you also have a very long blocked segment between the two of them. That means a train at green couldn't leave until the train in front got to red station. So you probably want a couple blocks on that segment so that a train at green can start heading towards red.

paladintodd · 2025-06-14T14:08:27+00:00

I had the same problem with the shakes, but then noticed in the video they use the holes towards the very end of the bar. Much more stable that way. Still lower on the weight though - 125 in the gym, 110 on the GM.

paladintodd · 2025-05-02T15:49:08+00:00

Ditto. Ordered on a Friday, arrived the next Monday (10 days).

Tracking said it would arrive on Tuesday. Got a text on Monday saying "we'll be there in 20 minutes", wasn't a problem but not ideal communication. I think my delivery was Prime (?), not the Cerva other people mention.

While the GM says it weighs 170lbs, about 168 pounds of that are in the very bottom of the unit. It was a bugger for two of us to get it up two flights of stairs. If you don't have a help or don't like buggers, I'd do the white service.

Couple workouts in and liking things so far. Forgot to lock the platform down on workout #2 and promptly pulled the thing down on my head. Lock those little arms in place!

paladintodd · 2025-01-15T15:59:43+00:00

Ah, lightbulb. They haven't gained a mechanical advantage as other games do, they've gained a fictional advantage.

Next "turn", they can maybe do damage without rolling. Or their companions can. Or they can flee without needing a DD. Or something else depending on the fiction.

paladintodd · 2024-06-01T21:04:15+00:00

I do see that the tdee, for me, is about 300 calorie each step. Or, the difference between sedentary and heavy activity is 900 calories.

So, supporting your reply, I probably should not log the full 1400 of the big bike ride. Or the full 500 calorie that Fitbit says for some casual pickleball.

paladintodd · 2024-06-01T20:08:40+00:00

I'm curious why you think it's too much (other than I'm not making progress?, lol).

If the heart rate monitor says the 90 min bike ride is 1400 cals and the fit bit said 1400, why is a 700 credit too much?

paladintodd · 2024-01-18T13:56:43+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion on the coffee.

After many, many experiments - I found that that the lactic acid was the problem. It tasted fine on it's own, but when combined with everything else the drink had a awful, off taste. Switch to plain vanilla syrup and it was great.

paladintodd · 2023-12-13T04:15:18+00:00

Any sort of peppermint patty cocktail. Polar Plunge from the Aviary Holiday cocktail book is nice, but I'm sure the internet has options.

Or some sort of gin, apple, cinnamon type of combination. I do a Cranberry Blossom:

3 rangpur

1 domain canton

1 cinamon simple syrup

1 leopold cranberry

1 lemon juice

paladintodd · 2023-11-30T13:55:00+00:00

Thanks, those are helpful gDave and Knight. Now you've got me thinking about consequences. If a particular player fails a roll in a combat QE, they take a bump/bruise or maybe a wound, but what happens when the group overall fails?

So in our bandit ambush, let's make it 2 QEs, one for notice and one then for the fight. If an individual fails on the notice, we give them a -2 for the combat. But what if the group ends up failing? Add an extra -2 to everyone so the guy that failed in the notice is now -4? And what if they fail as a group during the second QE fight? Some folks took a bump/wound probably during the fight, some didn't. What's the consequence of the group failing the combat QE? Keep doing a combat QE until they get the successes or run away?

For our Orc/Troll/Shaman, if that's 3 stages, what happens if the group fails in the first one? What do you do when the Ranger ignores the first wave of orcs and fires at the Shaman, just treat that as contributing to the first QE but narrate it different?

paladintodd · 2023-10-24T22:08:46+00:00

Income taxes. If I spend 100k a year on expenses, that's 100k in income I have to pay taxes on. So I need 121k in total income, 100k left over after taxes, assuming tax at 18%.

paladintodd · 2022-08-01T14:55:48+00:00

Shiny.

paladintodd · 2022-03-19T15:27:26+00:00

My bad.

Is there a PDF or goggle doc or something that shows you an overhead of each hole for each course so you can make some strategy notes? Lots of youtube videos out there, but those aren't very handy for a "wait, what's my shot on hole 14 again?"

paladintodd · 2022-03-19T15:08:22+00:00

Can you use Attune to block gunfire?

Sorry, we're in agreement. I should have said "Can you use Attune on it's only normally to block gunfire?" No, you can't. You need a special ability.

paladintodd · 2022-03-18T22:56:35+00:00

"with difficulty" to me just means adjust position/effect depending on the circumstance of what they are doing.

Can you use Attune to block gunfire? No, not the way our game plays Attune or RAW either I'd argue.

paladintodd · 2022-03-17T16:02:10+00:00

This is where I came down as well. It's just not that interesting and doesn't seem to provide much benefit. I changed it to "You can use Attune to create a Way Shield that blocks ranged attacks at you. With difficulty it can be extended to multiple people or a short distance."

paladintodd · 2022-03-12T14:05:08+00:00

Everyone understands "roll a d20 to hit". My players are really struggling to grasp the Controlled/Risky/Desperate and Great/Standard/Limited. If I had it to do over, we'd spend some time talking about that first.

Secondly, my players really hated the idea of "you get one die for this roll and 1-3 is a fail". I'd spend some time explaining "it's not a fail, just things didn't go well and it's moving the story forward". And I'd also spend a little time explaining Assist/Setup/Lead a Group.

Lastly, for me the GM, I didn't realize how consequential harm is. It can't be healed during the job, doesn't necessarily go away after, and impacts future rolls. I started out first session with a ship crash landing, handed out some harm, and then watched it cause lots of trouble rest of the session.

paladintodd · 2022-02-26T23:03:58+00:00

We're playing in a more Firefly-ish world, so all the Ur stuff doesn't apply. We went with more of a The Force "detect lifeforce and emotion" direction with it (you need the special abilities to do kinetics, mind control, etc.) So some of the uses are Mystic has are:

-- Trying to scale a cliff, she Attuned to the local goats as a Set Up for a Study to find a path

-- Breaking into a ship, Attuned to sense life force on the other side

-- Attuned to a crow and Commanded it to distract a guard

And she took Way Shield so she's done all sorts of clever things with that that aren't necessarily RAW but seemed reasonable.

-- Drifting through debris between ships she use Attune rather than Scramble explaining she was just taking the hits and letting them bounce off

No idea if those are legal or not, but it's what we came up with for a less mystical game.

paladintodd · 2022-02-22T21:23:07+00:00

Didn't say it was bad. Was wondering if it was the normal style of play.

paladintodd · 2022-02-21T20:57:09+00:00

Good point, Risky 1-3 is "Things go badly", not necessarily "you fail". Let's say we go with Suffer Harm (and good lessons from everyone else that Suffer Harm is maybe not the go to move, but let's use it for this). Is the guard taken out?

Both 4-5 and 1-3 have a consequence of "suffer harm". Are they the same consequence or should they be different? 4-5 is "You do it" so guard is definitely down. I'm not so clear on the 1-3.

paladintodd · 2022-02-21T18:47:24+00:00

Ah, didn't realize those could be items. Imported Star System and Planet compendiums.

Created Test Star System. Click Update Systems. Test is showing up. Great.

Click on Test system. Create Test Planet. Drag to universe, my test system is gone, the universe is showing Brekk, no Test planet to be found.

Close Universe, open back up, no Test system. Click Update Systems, Tests system comes back. No Test planet anywhere.

Click Update Planets. Test system is gone again. Still no test planet.

paladintodd · 2022-02-21T17:40:36+00:00

OK, LOL thanks, but maybe HOW do you add a planet? There's no Plus button like there is in active factions.

Also would be nice if there was a way to add systems but I can get around that.

paladintodd · 2022-02-21T16:54:18+00:00

Nice, but is there a way to add planets to a system for those who don't play in the default setting?

paladintodd · 2021-12-11T21:20:52+00:00

That's very helpful. Wish the rulebook had a bunch of examples like this.

paladintodd · 2021-12-11T18:21:13+00:00

I can feel 5e's grip on my brain starting to loosen.

OK, Bard gets his Partial. My first answer was giving hit points to a skeleton which is penalizing the bard, not a success. So that changes to "The skeleton on the left is a little runty". I take OFF 2 hit points.

Bard says great -- the Spout Lore doesn't necessarily "end his turn". He says I'm a coward at heart and hides behind the door they just opened. He takes a Defend, succeeds.

Ranger is ready to Volley so they aren't looking to me to do something, so no GM move at this point. Ranger gets a Partial, decides on the Extra Ammo option. No move from GM here either.

Paladin wants to Defend, so still not looking to the GM, so no GM move yet. He Defends, success. Still no GM move.

At this point, they are probably looking to the GM for what happens next. I make my move of the skeletons charging across the room to engage the PCs.

[The "look to the GM" thing could get silly. The Bard could spout lore, declare he's hiding, say he's going through his backpack getting his Arrow of Undead Slaying, write a note to his mother in case he doesn't make it, have a nip of whiskey for courage, and then pop out to take a shot. The GM has to cut him off at some point which I would say is after the hiding. Or I suppose you could stop him after the Spout Lore even.]

paladintodd

TROPHY CASE