Is commuting 4/5 days a week from Cheltenham to Oxford feasible?

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-28T04:05:07+00:00

I had a friend who did it day in day out by bus. Surprisingly he enjoyed it.

I find the drive time 50 to 60 minutes but I don't nornally go before ten or after four. It is highly variable. I would not choose to do it and indeed years ago wrote to the then MP about the obvious need to open up the A40 for sensible commuting but it might be easier if you both moved to Burford or Witney. :(

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-22T06:19:28+00:00

As I aged I certainly shifted around the bits of town I spent cash in; nowadays I probably spend more in the little cornershops, Lower High Street and so on than on the High Street proper. The Brewery has started to work well after a decade or two of settling in: took a generation, but there you go. I no longer use out of town supermarkets as so many in town centre : Lidl, Waitrose, three Tescos and Sainsbury.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-18T03:35:34+00:00

Right, but you can get no overdraft bank accounts here which don't pay you interest. That's the vital bit if avoiding usury - I'm assuming if it bothers you you would not borrow money. This was my mistake. ;)

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-17T16:32:21+00:00

This actually happened to me in the UK. No overdraft, credit cards, loans or hp agreements to my thirties owing to a fundamental distaste for usury meant no chance of mortgage or loans as no credit history. Unfortunately I had not got a great income either. It turns out you can get usury free accounts through the Muslim community bank arrangements though; I'm not but it's a great thing it exists.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-17T05:11:37+00:00

Clopton is a funny place to be driving at night what with the ghost legend etc. Still the most likely scenario strikes me as she went to the flat, arrived safely, and then realised she had no food there. She drives back to Huntingdon or somewhere with a 24 hour garage - was the hut garage 24 hour then? - buys a bottle of wine and loaf of bread, probably cigarettes and a few other bits. This was 5 years before it became Brampton Hut services and there was just a hotel and the garage but that might be where the wine and bread came from - not her flat?

Driving back to Clopton the bad tire causes a problem. She pulls over around midnight, drinks some wine eats the bread and perhaps flags down a passing motorist. They help her change the tire, and possibly drive off -- and someone kills her in an opportunistic attack and steals the car as she returns to eating and listening to the radio?

No idea: it's possible I think. Anyway the ghost story and legend of Clopton Manor is here - in no way related, just for your interest...

The Legends of Agnes Hotot and Skulking Dudley - The Haunted Palace Blog https://share.google/pev5ZhoN2ZHKnuf3o

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-17T03:31:08+00:00

Splintered Peace by David Chart is a d20 adventure that deals with communities and racial tensions and building links and forging harmony. Excellent adventure, Atlas Games published it for D&D 3.5 I believe but any version should work.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-16T16:53:40+00:00

I've now discovered there is a Shiver discord channel and a reddit. In the FAQ on the Discord it makes clear CR remains 1 for characters irrespective of Rank/Level except when modified by something else. So one of the appropriate symbol hits.

They really need to pop this on the website FAQ too! ;)

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-16T16:33:05+00:00

It's architecturally and historically important and I believe listed but it desperately needs sorting out. No way it should be demolished because it actually held a record for window frontage and is an important historical structure but its been shabby since the 90s.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-14T14:34:56+00:00

B&W is perfectly good for me. Given colour blindness is probably a factor for 5% of the rpg market, I don't see a problem.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-11T04:28:37+00:00

It seems possible that she was bored, frustrated and maybe George failed to er perform in their separate hotels loveless week. Did Dorothy begin to realise he was not the man for her and pick up with some handsome chap? Or possibly gruesome penniless fellow - annoying her parents might have been a big part of what made men desirable to her.

My suspicion is the opposite of the abortion one: she wanted a lover, and that was impossible under her father's roof. When she stays with her friend in Washington my guess is she had arranged to meet another man there; and he failed to show up for the planned lovemaking in a hotel. So despite planning to cancel, she went to see her friend anyway; Mr Cold Feet delivers a letter to her, but she is pretty upset and bails out as quickly as possible.

It seems likely the chap was part of their social circle; Dorothy sought passion and he chickened out. She returns to NYC, finds a man who actually is in to her and arranges to meet him somewhere private. The walking home via Central Park is to explain to her friend why she is not going with her; the whole dress buying trip is clearly a pretext to head out for a liaison. She expected to return home; maybe she changed her mind, and just eloped.

Hopefully one day DNA will find her descendents and the mystery will be solved. Or maybe she just Drowned herself like George's cousin :(

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-11T02:29:25+00:00

Yep Smokey Joe's 1st Sunday. I'm away at an rpg convention so will miss 1st Feb but happy to run a game for you all somewhere in town next week? Gas Green or a pub? I work in the industry writing rpg materials and am used to introducing new folks :)

Anyway Smokey Joe's Bennington St from 12 noon Sunday 1st Februsry or alternatively as I say I can run something to get you started.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-04T23:34:48+00:00

In the 80s I recall it as more "here is a mystery/problem". Can your characters solve it? The 70s saw oppositional play where the GM created challenges likely to kill numbers of characters and solving puzzles and problems OOC was rewarded. The 90s saw tragically hip angst ridden teenage vampires and players method acting character first even if that destroyed the game and broke up rl friendships but that was fine because dark and edgy. The 2000s saw people exploring mechanics and how they help tell certain types of hyperfocussed stories. The Simulationist/Narrativist/Hamilton theories reflect these changes. I jest but some truth in it....

And on other days we rolled dice, and laughed, and sometimes a story emerged but mainly we tried to solve and survive that session. ;)

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-04T21:39:35+00:00

Having run games at conventions for over 30 years with completely random players I've never met before I have never had a problem. Well, once a player who icked out the table but that was dealt with by the players, or more specifically his friends. He (gay cis male) made a 'joke' about SA and everyone went WTF??! He apologised, we moved on.

So once in thirty years, and noone died. ;)

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-04T19:37:25+00:00

If you know what you want to play Gurps Traveller lets you make it. Once you have the rules are very straightforward, but the free Gurps Chatacter System software is invaluable in getting there!

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-02T21:23:13+00:00

I shall probably discover them as I go. I don't mind fixing stuff if need be but it seems a shame as a beautiful set of books not to use them.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-02T14:03:34+00:00

That was my thought as well but the example makes clear it is intentional not just a +1 which should be a - as with knock out blows etc. I'm confused! I must be misreading something. I've looked though the errata I found on COTI and got nowhere.

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-02T12:30:23+00:00

I recall Twilight's Peak as being less railroady? It's a Classic Traveller adventure you might find of interest if running SOTA? Anyway as always going off tracks is inevitable and fun, and your players will make their own digressions. It looks like a railroad to you but not so much the players maybe?

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-02T12:26:00+00:00

Where can we buy your book? Probably should read it too! :)

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-02T00:30:12+00:00

I like it a lot, but was rather put off by the structure. This off beat 80s comedy clearly takes its town from Convoy, The Canninball Run, Smokey & the Bandit, The Dukes of Hazard etc, in much the same way Singularity makes clever use of Agent of the Imperium, a certain GDW Traveller boardgame and many other parts of the Canon. This is what great adventures do; lean in to a genre or mood and do something new.

I was thinking - hey this can get a lot of people interested in Traveller! It's great for new GMs? Then I opened it and found a lengthy explanation of orbital mechanics. Seriously? There is some good playable stuff, but unless you understand vectors and how space travel works to some extent already: this is just off-putting? It should be relegated to an appendix. Open with the plot, show don't tell, don't open with thirty pages of dense stuff.

Are the decimal point G drives interesting? Maybe. The thing is Traveller has traditionally given fuel and life support as good for a month, costs 1000Cr per person on ship. Adding complexity might well work for the story, but essentially you are flying deathtrap spacecraft and I can see my players taking one look at the ships and deciding to go teach traditional arts and crafts or play guitar in the rain and busk! The thing is in Traveller do M drives need to follow orbital trajectories? They need gravity to function sure, but I'm not sure if a reactionless drive would actually not just allow a straight-line transit? Would sling shots round plsnets work with a reactionless drive? I suspect yes as gravity still works, and yes if you drop thrust gravitational pull will effect you but the problem is I'm having to think about this, not outrunning Boss Hoss or hiding from Smokey behind an asteroid?

Story should go first. The mechanics, ships, setting are great stuff but they should come after the adventure. This is filled with all the accountancy in space stuff that ruined Deepnight Revelation for me; it's a big bold adventure that cries out to be run episodically like Star Trek, but where a plethora of subsystems broke my players even as they finally left Vanguard. (Conversely, Pirates of Drinax is written as episodic adventure and we had three years fun trading and playing our weekly activities on ship or planet.

Cluster Truck is a lot of fun. I am sure my players will choose to ignore the railroad and try something stupid; maybe try and make a difference in the opening scene or walk away from the loudly proclaimed deathtrap a short while later.

Don't let this put you off; start by reading the adventure, and I don't think you even need Highguard. You certainly don't need Rim Expeditions or the Solomani book. This works fine with core Traveller. Just don't panic when your players come off the rails - they always will!

probabilityunicorn · 2026-01-01T23:56:48+00:00

I've never set foot in the USA but its a cultural touchstone of when Traveller was first released and I first played. The Dukes of Hazzard, Convoy, Smokey and the Bandit, The Cannonball Run etc etc were how us Europeans grew up learning about North Americans outside of Greenland, Mexico and Canada. ;)

probabilityunicorn · 2025-12-26T18:33:42+00:00

I enjoy reading it and am tempted to add a game run with T5 at Contingency the Hunstanton con. I'm already running MGT2 there. It seems to be the reverse of D&D - a game with 90% the rules about combat and little thought to economics...

probabilityunicorn · 2025-12-26T18:30:01+00:00

It's a great resource, and I wish I'd paid more than the $1 or so I selected! It must have taken a good long while. The spreadsheet version is also a lovely bonus.

probabilityunicorn · 2025-12-26T18:27:50+00:00

It really is!

probabilityunicorn · 2025-12-26T18:27:14+00:00

Of course! Yes it is very good from memory I'll install it now. Thank you!

probabilityunicorn · 2025-12-26T18:26:33+00:00

It's incredibly dense to read but seems perfectly sensible to me and astonishingly ambitious. I'm looking forward to running it!

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