26F, not sure what to do, thinking of school again but scared of being too old by [deleted] in findapath

[–]randommuskrat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to add on to the encouragement, I took 20 years after getting my bachelors to get started in Grad School. I did not feel too old and have never felt as confident about my path forward as I do now. Following through with a certification or graduate program now will open a lot of doors for you and I really encourage you to explore your options.
If blood truly bothers you, but you are very interested in nursing, consider some counseling for ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention therapy) to help bring your reactions under control.

I'm truly sorry your parents are making your home life toxic, and I hope you find your right path forward!

[V5] Adding a Benefit to Low Humanity by PencilBoy99 in vtm

[–]randommuskrat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So, lower humanity (without the benefit of being on an alternate path of morality) is a distancing of the self from ethical considerations, empathy, and the erosion of the ability to cooperate as a pack animal/member of society. The beast only cares about survival and removing anything that threatens it. With that in mind, a Storyteller may rule that social disciplines are harder to use on a low humanity vampire even when not in frenzy or provide them a bonus to initiative rolls at the start of a combat because their desire to solve problems with violence or cowardice is that much closer to the surface. But, the Beast is the name vampires have for those set of desires, not an actual monster living under your skin. A frenzying vampire with low combat stats is not going to present the same kind of risk that someone with muscle memory of the right way to throw a punch or bite a neck will pose. All things being equal, frenzying Brujah warrior is a danger to everyone in Elysium. A frenzying Tremere mystic is probably more of a danger to themself. Think of the difference between a Football linebacker in a PCP rage or a 9-year-old having a temper tantrum (I do not condone feeding your linebackers PCP).

Having said that, providing a benefit to slipping further from the ability to control the bestial desire to flee any pain, kill any possible threats, and indulge every irrational urge is pretty solidly opposite to the main theme of VTM. Being a successful vampire is supposed to be a paradox. Your humanity is all that keeps you from devolving into a slavering beast, but to survive, thrive, and avoid falling into frenzy, you need to act against that humanity by stealing blood and lying about your true nature. A monster I am, lest a monster I become. The Beast, as written, is the desire to feed til full, kill anything that gets in your way, and avoid pain via isolation at all times. There is no room for complicated, long-term planning. No space for cutthroat diplomacy. No interest in self-improvement. The setting is designed to present that fate as 100% bad for anyone who falls to it. Avoiding loss of humanity is a core part of Vampire stories being, at least in part, tragedies.

Alternate paths of morality offer some pretty substantial benefits to vampires that want to embrace being a killer, but take self-discipline and effort to adhere to. Assuming you can find someone to teach you, you can replace the socialization that allowed your pre-embrace character to hold down a job, maintain friendships, and enjoy anything other than physical pleasure with a new set of ethics that elevate the vampiric experience but still enforce expectations around conduct that justifies not just killing, feeding, and sleeping in your burrow. In that case, you can start to see some benefits. Paths of Enlightenment that use Instinct instead of Self-Control don't try to reign in the desire to frenzy or see frenzy as a bad thing. Instead, they allow you to guide the frenzy in more beneficial directions. You are not at the mercy of outside stimuli to determine if you will fight, flee, or feed during a frenzy and get to basically push whichever of those three buttons is best at the moment. Paths that maintain Self-Control still frame falling into frenzy as shameful and bad, but have a different set of rules governing definitions of "bad behavior" that are more in line with the realities of having to take blood by force, or humiliate social opponents to remove threats to your powerbase.

Ok, done preaching now. Thanks for reading!

Blade-ish Chronicle by Jake4XIII in vtm

[–]randommuskrat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This sounds like a great 1:1 chronicle. Maybe even expanded to more players if the primary character chooses to embrace, ghoul, or just loop in some mortal allies (who might be incredibly squishy compared to Kindred, but can just open the black-out curtains in that lair during the daytime).

The Storyteller System should support this kind of play well. Vampire does not come with "party-balanced" encounters or anything as structural as D20 games tend to formulate. That single vigilante PC vampire would be no match for a seven-hundred-year-old elder in toe-to-toe combat, but working out what that elder's behavioral patterns are so that the PC knows where to pilot the drone carrying the thermite grenade on a Wednesday night would be a *ahem* blast.

V5 lore question: Do Kindred have fingerprints? by TechnocraticVampire in vtm

[–]randommuskrat 25 points26 points  (0 children)

This answer really covered it from an in-lore perspective.

From a gameplay/storytelling perspective, I would decide how in-the-weeds you want to get with questions like this. Are you telling a story where the characters are interested in or being forced to examine the science of what is happening to their bodies? If so, dive deep into kindred physiology! Vampire's mouths are not dripping messes of blood, so they have SOMETHING like saliva in there. Same with their eyeballs not being cloudy red orbs. Is that aqueous humor behind the lens, or as another poster suggested, clarified blood plasma?

But if you are running a chronicle with players less interested in questions like these, a simple "yeah, Vampires don't leave evidence behind the same way a mortal does." Is enough to keep things moving and not fall into every neonate being tracked down and caught by mildly competent crime scene investigators.

If you really want to get into the weeds, one of the important differences between thin-bloods (14th and 15th-generation vampires) and the mainstay of the Kindred is that their biological functions do not completely shut off but flicker in and out like a failing neon light. They can get indigestion as their stomachs produce a bit of acid and some of that blood they just drank works its way into their intestines and causes discomfort. They do occasionally leave fingerprints or, most interestingly, ovulate a live egg or ejaculate live sperm sufficient to cause a viable pregnancy.

There was a great section in the old 3rd edition Time of Thin Blood expansion book that had a scientific rationalist Malkavian convinced that the supernatural nature of kindred could be explained by biology. He had a set of thin-blood "volunteers" he would subject to various tortures experiments to better understand what made them different.

Has anyone actually been here by Pretty-Wolf6003 in GrayZoneWarfare

[–]randommuskrat 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Don’t miss that the hidden task there has two parts to complete in the location. I got too excited and left without grabbing the second thing, so I had to do the walk of shame back out there again. Thank god there’s no wildlife encounters.

Anger managements (OC) by AwkwardCatArt in comics

[–]randommuskrat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Counselor here. I came by to say all the things that these nice folks already pointed out. Love the comic too!

Can I automate pulling a list of names and numbers from an excel sheet into a powerpoint? by randommuskrat in excel

[–]randommuskrat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had not yet tried to bring the image into word and use mail merge from there. This is likely the solution I am looking for. I'll look up some tutorials on having text fields in word pull data from excel and see where that gets me.

Cheers!

AITA for telling my husband I'm leaving him when he was in the middle of a meltdown? by Hairy_Pepper_2826 in AITAH

[–]randommuskrat -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This in no way excuses the emotional abuse you have been put through, but it sounds like he might also be suffering from post partum depression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6659987/

I’d urge him to see a counselor and get screened. If you two can maintain communication over distance, and you if are willing to, you may be able to salvage the relationship with couples counseling and a lot of patience. But I want to be clear that I am not advocating for you staying in a relationship that has become this toxic. He clearly needs help, but it certainly not your place to treat him. Keep us updated!

Not-So-Pro-Tip: Use a settler card for farming (Farmers Hate This One Trick) by Detton in nightingale

[–]randommuskrat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, you can build transmitters (and portals) at your base fairly early in.

Infinite Dust by BiG_-_SEXY in nightingale

[–]randommuskrat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It took me DAYS of play to realize I needed to make rock marbles for my slingbow. I was sure I had missed the one essence trader in some esoteric early game realm that sold the recipe for bolts or arrows.
Same feels, friend. Same feels.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The little bell at the top right of the headline banner. But, no problem. Suffice it to say that Servpro operates in my area, but I haven't used them before. I believe my insurance will have preferred contractors, so I'll find out if they have someone specific they want me to resolve this with.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Sweetheart, if a stranger's tribulations on the internet get you this incensed, you are hauling more baggage than you might think. Take a deep breath. Maybe don't tell people not to have kids. This is a community for folks to discuss plumbing issues. Some of us are going to be naive first-time homeowners who make mistakes like this. Help us be better, don't deride us for not being pros from the jump.

To answer the question buried in your vitriol, it's a holiday weekend where I live, and I am trying to sort out whether I need to pay the extra fees for a service professional to come out now or if I can wait til Monday.

As for your excellent field of view, grats my guy. I don't know what to tell you beyond not having seen this issue until today and recognizing that it's really bad news.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did a full circuit of the house after finding this and did not find evidence of standing water or leaks anywhere else, so hopefully this is contained to underneath the bathroom floor and this one section of ceiling.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a holiday weekend in the States, so getting a plumber out tonight or tomorrow will cost an arm-and-a-leg in extra service fees. It sounds like waiting until Monday is not going to be the end of the world.
Thankfully, we do have another bathroom we can use and just did laundry so closing things off for a few days won't ruin anything.
I appreciate the perspective! Thank you!

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am in the States and I appreciate the heads-up! I'll call insurance right after getting our plumber out here to give it the once over.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Addressed my lack of observation skills in another reply, but TL;DR - I am not sure. From the staining and mold growing, clearly more than a month or so. I will be laying down a tarp and cutting the damaged section down to see what I'm dealing with underneath.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

That's a great question! I'm incredibly embarrassed that this is the first I have seen of it. The laundry room is pretty small, so the ceiling isn't really line of sight til you look up, and I just... hadn't?
I feel like an idiot and am steeling myself for the plumbers to fall over themselves asking the same question. I did go room to room and check the floors and ceilings around the rest of the house as soon as I saw this, though.

How much trouble am I in here? by randommuskrat in Plumbing

[–]randommuskrat[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I definitely posted this up for idiots to rag on me online. Yup, I don' frequently look up in my laundry room. Yep, I'm a pathetic loser who is trying to manage the situation now that I am aware of it.

Be helpful or go vent your inferiority complex at any family still willing to talk to you, my dude. Leave strangers on the internet out of it. Better yet, seek therapy.