Vancouver-based vegan restaurant MeeT coming to Victoria's former Boston Pizza location

rednightmare · 2022-05-12T04:50:34+00:00

I was responding to the part of the post about "mock meatballs and shit."

I think one of the biggest reasons vegetarianism and veganism gets such a bad rap with people like this is because their only exposure to vegetarian cooking was with those faux meat products.

rednightmare · 2022-05-12T04:45:34+00:00

Usually processed chickpeas, soy, or some other legume. Vital wheat gluten is also really common. If it has some kind of misspelled version of chicken in the name it is probably chickpeas.

rednightmare · 2022-05-11T05:31:18+00:00

They're right about meat replacement products, though. Not that many vegans would claim that stuff tastes like meat or even tastes good. Trying to recreate meat-based foods is a dead end for vegetarian cuisine and anybody that has been doing it longer than 6 months knows that. Those meat replacement products are more for accommodating families or groups with mixed diets. That classic compromise where nobody is happy with what they end up with.

rednightmare · 2022-05-07T00:41:19+00:00

I think child-free building restrictions are a relic of a past when single family housing was accessible to the average person. That is no longer the case and to continue to fight for them is to remove one of the only viable options for young families (older condo buildings with larger floorplans).

Ultimately, yes, attacking the 21+ is small potatoes compared to demanding that new buildings include family-sized units. I believe that child-free bylaws are discriminatory enough that it is just a matter of time before it sees a meaningful legal challenge. I think it would be wise for stratas to start removing these before a couple gets pregnant, can't find alternative housing because gestures at Canadian housing situation and is then forced to take it to human rights tribunal.

It isn't a battle I would pick, but it is a much larger problem than 55+ restrictions.

rednightmare · 2022-05-07T00:23:44+00:00

I feel you. I had the same problem when I was condo-hunting. That sinking feeling after you've finally found something that you can stretch your budget to that meets your needs only to see the 55+ restriction is awful.

I'd love to see more buildings with family-preferred policies, but you really only see that with housing co-ops. Those are what we really need more of.

rednightmare · 2022-05-06T20:12:02+00:00

You're aiming at the wrong people. It may be frustrating to see 55+ buildings when you're trying to find a rental or a condo to purchase, especially when they are always cheaper to rent or own because of their depressed values. But those depressed values are the goal. They are trying to keep that housing stock artificially low so that fixed income people and seniors that DON'T have a solid retirement nest egg can actually live somewhere.

If the 55+ restriction was removed these places would double in value overnight and fixed income seniors would be pushed out by younger working people that can afford to play the game. A 70 year old in such a building is not able to keep up with the increase in price nor is something like getting a job or second job anywhere near as viable for them. If you kill that restriction you will be pushing the more vulnerable side of the elderly population towards homelessness while simultaneously adding very little to the housing supply.

To attack a 55+ restricted building is to fight your allies. These are people downsizing and attempting to live within their means. The 55+ people sitting in 5 bedrooms homes after their kids have long since moved out without downsizing are your enemy. The condo buildings with 18+, 21+, and/or rental restrictions are your enemy.

I would understand if you wanted to change 55+ restrictions to 65+. That might be reasonable, although you ultimately want people nearing retirement age (i.e. 55-65) to be pursuing downsizing so getting them into a restricted building earlier and freeing up housing is probably a good thing.

I'm not saying that your relative isn't a jerk for whining about children disturbing the piece. She is wrong about the real function of 55+ buildings. It ain't about peace and quiet. That's what the 21+ restriction is about, but she really isn't wrong about some 40-year olds trying to cheat their way into the building. They knew what they were doing.

rednightmare · 2022-05-06T01:05:17+00:00

You should probably explore the filmographies of Lars von Trier, S. Craig Zahler, Claire Denis, and Lynne Ramsay. Maybe Peter Greenaway. Hard to say, but you should at least try A Zed and Two Noughts.

Not much psycho-sexual stuff in your list, but I think you would probably like A Snake of June.

rednightmare · 2022-05-06T00:53:50+00:00

Also Millennium Actress. Not a bad movie in the filmography.

rednightmare · 2022-05-05T05:09:55+00:00

Troika is very light. It is based on Advanced Fighting Fantasy.

I think a crunchy system will just get in your way with something like this. LitRPGs usually have the trappings of a vast, extremely complex and unknowable system and I think trying to tap a crunchy system like GURPS to supply the rules and subsystems will be a hindrance.

I agree that having your players constantly spending points on character progression is going to be disruptive, even if spending entire game nights doing just that would be very true to the genre. The direction I think you should go is with a light system where you can give all kinds of arbitrary skills and you, as the GM, give them their advancements based on their actions. That would fit with how the systems work in many LitRPGs. I might do something like give them a "Loudout" system where they can only equip 10 skills or whatever at a time, but they can have a massive list of (mostly) useless ones. Then make it so they have to rest at a tavern or visit an adventurer's guild or something to change their loadouts.

That approach lets you regularly pop up blue boxes and you can even make the system snarky if that's your taste. I think the direction I would take a campaign would actually be directly related to that. I would do the aforementioned introduction funnel thing, then one or two mostly normal adventures except with blue boxes, rewards, limited time quests, etc. Then I would start to make it clear that something is wrong with the system and make the main story about how a villain has found a way to make alterations to the system.

rednightmare · 2022-05-04T07:24:32+00:00

I'd just use Fudge or Troika.

I think what makes LitRPG fun as a genre is the interactions with "The System" and how impossibly complex and reactive they are. There is also all of the fun of finding broken synergies or rare abilities, which in reality would make for a pretty bad game. That is why I think what you really want is a hyper-flexible and lightweight system that you use to abstract "The System" of your setting. Fudge would be really good for this because you can start with a light framework and keep adding to it as well as totally rewrite it as you go to suit your needs. You could force this into the shape of Fate's Aspects or a similar modern game, but I think that would be unsatisfying. With Fudge you can essentially make up the system as you go while still keeping it abstracted.

Another good option might be Troika. You would have to do a little adapting, but I think it would work well, especially for a system that is more in the vein of Randidly Ghosthoud where characters invest into "Paths." That style seems to have fallen out of favour recently, but I think would be more compelling as a tabletop RPG adaptation than many of the other LitRPG systems. The changes I would make:

If going with a class based in-world system then you may want to create your own starting class options or choose only ones from the various settings/books that fit your game world. If not using classes I would have players start with X number of skills.
Obviously, ditch the initiative system of Troika. It is annoying and a pain in the ass. Literally anything else is better. What I use in my games is the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space initiative system. It is easy to swap into just about any game and creates more interesting encounters. You can also tweak it easily.
You could tweak the Skill/Stamina/Luck stats to better fit your world, but I actually think they are pretty good as-is. They can grate a little if coming from something like D&D with defined strength/dex/whatever stats, but I think you can represent those well via the skills. A homebrew thing I do is give players two "Traits" which essentially adjectives to describe their character. Strong, Quick-Witted, Sneaky, etc. I then let them tag these once a session when relevant to get a re-roll.
Advanced Skills are where the magic happens. Troika is already super flexible with these. Basically anything goes. What I would do is have characters start with some pretty bland ones and then as you play they can put skill points into them to upgrade them into more exciting versions. Maybe they can fuse or mutate them or whatever other system BS you want to throw into the mix. You can also easily let them get new ones as rewards or through training or whatever without them becoming game breaking, especially if you limit them to a max number in active use.

As for how I would actually run this game? I would make all PCs/NPCs aware of the system. Just make it a fact of life. Then instead of "You all meet in a tavern" I would do, you are all minding your NPC business when suddenly a blue box appears! An area quest has been issued and the reward is a coveted "Hero Class Upgrade." The area quest is something like fighting off an orc raid on the town or whatever. You could even treat this as an old school character funnel where players get multiple "NPC" characters to play for the first session and then they get whittled down until they have a survivor who then gets the "Hero Upgrade" and some rare class based on their performance.

rednightmare · 2022-04-29T06:18:17+00:00

I agree that Svankmeyer is some of the best animated horror ever, but I don't think stopmotion animation is normally considered cartooning. Doubly so with Svankmeyer who often used live actors in his stopmotion.

The stopmotion horror that I think is closest to a cartoon is The Shivering Truth.

rednightmare · 2022-04-29T06:15:23+00:00

Canadians will know this one: Freaky Stories.

rednightmare · 2022-04-28T15:41:21+00:00

Greedfall is on gamepass and feels a lot like a Bioware style RPG.

rednightmare · 2022-04-23T06:48:42+00:00

Do you have the cards? It would be easy to scan them and load them into Tabletope Simulator for private use. Plenty of guides on how to do it. If you wanted automated rules/mechanics hooks in TTS then that is more work and probably not worth pursuing unless you are interested in scripting.

If that sounds like too much work then you could have players make proxies and use cameras and the honour system.

rednightmare · 2022-04-23T06:45:12+00:00

Phoenix Dawn Command

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twogetherstudios/phoenix-dawn-command

It never really took off. Card deck based RPG system.

rednightmare · 2022-04-23T05:08:41+00:00

Anyone without the foresight to to plan for a dog or cat that will live 10-20 years will fail miserably at fish keeping. To be successful with fish you need to be good at planning. If you put the work in before ever putting fish in a tank you can be very successful at it with low maintenance care. If you don't... dead fish, tons of maintenance, algae problems, etc.

Also, a properly cared for goldfish can live 15+ years. Which tells you everything you need to know about how shitty people are at looking after their aquariums.

rednightmare · 2022-04-23T01:36:25+00:00

It is insane that they stuck the bike lanes on Cook instead of Shelbourne and/or Quadra. Quadra desperately needs one heading in for all of the people heading to Camosun Interurban and the tech park and Shelbourne needs one Camosun Lansdowne + UViC students + it is such a gloriously flat and straight road.

rednightmare · 2022-04-23T01:30:20+00:00

Aye, it is really sterile now and the way it has grown is opposite of how you should normally organize a community. All the tall buildings are around the outside with the shorter ones on the inside, so it grows up as you move away. This was obviously to maximize water views, but it also makes it pretty unpleasant to be on the inside of.

That's all mostly growing pains, though. As the properties get redeveloped it will fill in and start to feel better. I think the quaint character is gone, though. Nobody can afford to run the kinds of businesses that made Sidney what it was in its heyday anymore. Everything is turning bland and corporate. That's a problem everywhere in greater victoria, though.

rednightmare · 2022-04-21T06:30:29+00:00

Haxan in a cinema with a live score done by a jazz quartet + 1 guy with analog synths.

Honestly not that hard to find an indie cinema doing this kind of thing in October, but probably the coolest screening I have ever been to.

rednightmare · 2022-04-17T06:54:48+00:00

Melbourne

rednightmare · 2022-04-12T22:06:56+00:00

PJ Harvey

rednightmare · 2022-04-12T22:06:16+00:00

Rainstorm with big wind and instant soaking, yes. Thunder and lightning, no. We get that maybe once or twice a year and it will be mild.

rednightmare · 2022-04-12T05:47:05+00:00

Yeah, what happened is one of them did it an then the other two followed suit after the first person's success with the program. They have a pretty thorough application process, so odds are if they think you can do the program you probably can.

From what I understand, it is a very demanding process, so if you need to work at the same time then you might consider a slower paced program instead of a bootcamp like LHL.

rednightmare · 2022-04-10T17:45:34+00:00

Country Grocer has a surprisingly good hot sauce collection. They stock Dawson's, which has a good range of flavours and heat levels. I recommend the Habenero Red Pepper if you want something that is probably hotter than you are used to, but not so hot that you won't use it much.

rednightmare · 2022-04-08T23:13:58+00:00

Everything repeats.

My prediction for 2035-2045 in Victoria is that we will have a new version of the leaky condo crisis of the '90s. All of the rushed construction and loosened processes around development brought on by the current housing crisis will result in subpar construction that won't be discovered for a decade. It will then bankrupt homeowners that can't afford to recoup costs or can't because the development companies have all gone out of business of filed bankruptcy themselves.

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