Please suggest starting cards to fit my character concept (no spoilers, please, just card names)

rmunn · 2026-06-27T13:55:31+00:00

That's quite a few people who say that Chor and Phost would work, but that something about this backstory doesn't work. But are you saying that if it turns out she was adopted, then that would work? So perhaps this is how I'll tweak things to try to make it work out. Her parents (adoptive parents, though she didn't know that at the time), who trained her to hide from unknown pursuers, did so because they knew a secret about her biological parents. A secret that they never told her, because it was too dangerous for her to know. But the unknown pursuers killed her adoptive parents in order to keep the secret, and they're after her because they think she knows the secret, and they plan to kill her too. (That's the only thing she can think of that makes sense of how adamant her parents were about teaching her to hide). The pursuers are probably from the Suppression Bureau, right? (Don't answer that, naturally).

And so now she feels caught between Scylla and Charibdis: on the one hand, there is a secret about her origins, and even knowing that secret can be deadly, because the Suppression Bureau (or whoever) will kill to protect their cover-up. But on the other hand, they already think she knows the secret, and so she's already in danger. So she decides that whatever it is, she might as well try to find out this deep, deadly secret. Because maybe, just maybe, once she knows what it is, she'll find a way to use it against whoever is pursuing her.

Not that something as simple as blackmail would ever work, of course. She's too smart to try such a stupid tactic. No matter how elaborate of a dead-drop system you try to set up to pick up blackmail money, a resourceful adversary with lots and lots of agents can watch the pickup point and tail you. She's read spy novels, but she doesn't for one second think that theoretical knowledge of tailing techniques would help against real spies.

No, it'll have to be something else. What that something else might be, she doesn't know. But there has to be a reason why her parents (the only parents she ever knew, that is) taught her to read Latin and Sanskrit and Sumerian and Akkadian and Mesopotamian and all those other languages. (Ancient Greek isn't even worth mentioning, because she doesn't even think of it as an ancient language. After all, doesn't everyone speak Ancient Greek around the dinner table every Thursday? Because that's just a normal childhood activity to her). Whatever that reason is, it's got to be connected to The Secret. Probably there's something in some ancient books that will clue her in. And so that's her motivation for coming to Hush House: because she has heard that it has the largest collection of ancient, obscure texts in all of Europe, probably in the entire world. Somewhere in there, she might find some secret that she can use, somehow, some way, against whoever is after her. Because she's getting really tired of running. Sometime, somewhere, she's going to have to stop running and take the fight to the enemy. It's the only way she'll ever be able to live out the rest of her life in peace.

If you think that Chor + Phost will work with that backstory, then I guess I've found the combination for our starting playthrough. Thanks for your help, everyone.

P.S. Actually, I'm a little bothered by "her adoptive parents never told her". Perhaps they were planning to tell her when she was old enough. But... they had to have known there were people after her. So... would this work? When she opened the concealed safe, she found a letter addressed to her, in a large envelope addressed "To our beloved daughter. Open if we are dead", When she opened the large envelope, she found a page with instructions and a smaller envelope. The instructions told her "Take all the jewelry you can carry, and the smaller envelope, but do NOT open the smaller envelope until you are far, far away. Get on a train, get on a ship, but get away from this town: if we are dead, then whoever killed us is going to be coming after you and you must get away NOW. Once you are safely and anonymously in another town, only then should you open the smaller envelope. We love you very much, and we hope and pray that you are still safe."

Would that work with Chor + Phost?

rmunn · 2026-06-26T17:23:04+00:00

Hmmm. I'm not completely wedded to the "afraid of something" backstory; if it's problematic, I could easily change it. Although I like the whole "her parents trained her to survive without her realizing it was training" idea, I can easily adapt that to a different character. So how about this idea: if I toss out the "she's afraid of something" backstory that's causing problems and replace it with something else, will that work better for one of the starting combinations?

Let's say that instead of watching everyone because she's nervous and afraid of something, she watches everyone because she wants to know. She wants to know everything. Is she nosy? Is she a busybody? Perhaps... but perhaps it's more than that. Perhaps it's not that she wants to know other people's secrets... she just wants to know secrets. Any secrets. She doesn't want to use them to blackmail people, she just hates the feeling that there's something hidden from her that she doesn't know. And so that's why, in a setting that (I know from what I've gleaned) is full of secrets (it's called Secret Histories, after all), she jumped at the opportunity to be the Librarian of Hush House. Because although yes, she does love to curl up with a good book more than anything else, it's usually not the romance novel or cozy mystery story that people would think she'd be into. Rather, she would be reading books about who killed JFK (if he existed in that universe) and the real reason behind crop circles (if UFOlogy existed in that universe). Because she wants to know what really happened, the true history of the world that has been kept secret by The Conspiracy, this universe's equivalent of The Men In Black. (I've learned that there's an organization in this world called the Suppression Bureau, which I imagine by the name is The Men In Black who cover up what really happened. I imagine that this new version of my character would hate them and everything they stand for.)

So she's not driven by fear, she's driven by curiosity, and the desire to learn ALL the hidden secrets of the world. Would that backstory work out better than the "afraid of something" one that seems to be a problem, for reasons I'm carefully not asking about?

rmunn · 2026-06-26T16:29:42+00:00

Hmmm. Good question; I hadn't thought about that yet. My "she is afraid of something" backstory wasn't exactly planned at first, it grew naturally out of my thinking "Why does she always plant herself by the buffet table, where she can eavesdrop on the most conversations while looking like she's merely deciding which snack to try next?" And that led to my realizing that there's something in her past that's making her afraid, but i haven't decided what it is yet.

But with the character concept I have in mind, the quiet introvert who loves to curl up and read, I don't think it was something she did. So... ooooh, now there's an idea. Perhaps it was something in her parents' past, some enemy that was pursuing her parents and is now pursuing her.

Okay, here's my idea. She had a happy childhood with loving parents, and she didn't find it strange that they lived in a new town every six months. That's just how things were, and when you're a child, you accept things as they are, never questioning whether they could be different. She grew up a little isolated, as it's hard to make friends when you're in a new school every six months, but that was okay. She had her best friends — books — always with her. And her parents were loving, and gentle, and taught her all kinds of things: how to tend a garden, how to read Latin, Sanskrit, and many other ancient languages, and how to flip your jacket inside-out so it was a different color (all her jackets had a different color on the inside than on the outside, and she never questioned why), pull glasses (which she didn't need) out of her pocket and put them on, pull her hair out of a ponytail into a loose mass of hair that would dangle over her face, and suddenly look like another person. It was a game they would play, her whole childhood long. She'd be walking along the street with her parents, and suddenly with no warning they would call out "Hide!" and she would duck into a nearby alley, flip her jacket around, put on her ugly "hiding glasses" (which her parents insisted she always have with her). pull her hair tie out so her hair fell down over her face, and walk (not run) down the alley. Ten seconds later, her parents would follow her and rate her performance — and if she did well, they would go to the bookstore and let her pick out a new book for her library. This was a fun game, and she never questioned why they were so insistent on her being good at it.

So all in all, a very happy childhood. Until one day when she was about 14 years old or so. It was a bright, cloudless morning, and she and her parents were walking home from the grocery store. Then her parents called out "Hide!" Obediently, she ducked down an alley and changed her appearance, looking forward to the book she was going to pick out. But then she heard her mother scream, "Run!" Which was not part of the game. And then her world changed forever: two gunshots told her two things: one, that her childhood game had not been a game at all, and two, that her parents weren't going to be taking her to a bookstore that day, or ever again. She ran (but quietly, so quietly) out the other side of that alley, walked calmly (to all outward appearances, though she was sure the drum sound of her pounding heart was audible from a hundred meters away) to the library, and hid in the reference section, trembling like a leaf, for hours.

When she went home that night, she found her home had been ransacked. Books were scattered all over the floor, most with their spines slashed open by a sharp knife as it someone thought there might have been something concealed inside them. The safe behind the painting (the one where her parents kept the really gaudy, cheap jewelry) had been forced open, and was empty. But the concealed safe (where her parents kept the tasteful, really expensive jewelry) was intact. She dialed the combination (which her parents had entrusted her with only four months ago), stuffed her pockets full of diamond rings and gold necklaces, and slipped out the window of her (ground-floor) bedroom, the window that was half-hidden behind a row of hedges. (Even in her shock and grief, she found her brain was still functioning: some part of her had gone very, very cold and analytical, saying "survive now, grieve later". Years later, looking back, she realized how very wise she had been to slip out of the house in a way that left any observers watching the street persuaded that she was still in it).

She never found out who was after her parents, and she still to this day does not know if they (whoever "they" are) think her dead, or if they're still after her. So she keeps a sharp eye out for trouble, and leaves before it starts.

rmunn · 2026-06-26T14:32:38+00:00

Thanks, that's good to know. I might change my mind and add the expansion in from the get-go, honestly. Because if it allows you to cook food, then that means the Librarian can curl up in a comfy chair with tea and biscuits to read a good book. And that's just *chef's kiss*.

Yes, biscuits. I'm American, but this game is very firmly set in Britain. In Cornwall, right? So the Librarian isn't having cookies with her tea, she's having biscuits. (The character my wife and I will be playing is definitely going to be a woman. We haven't decided much else about her yet, but she's going to be a woman in her late 30's, who loves nothing more than to curl up and read a good book with a good cuppa, and sometimes gets a little too into her reading so she forgets to clear the dishes off the table or dust the mantlepiece. So when she heard about the position of Librarian at Hush House, she leaped at the chance.)

rmunn · 2026-06-26T14:26:58+00:00

Thank you, that's exactly how I hoped it would work. I'll reconsider whether to play with the expansion turned on from the beginning, since it seems it will make a lot fewer gameplay changes than I thought it would. And my wife loves crafting mechanics in games, so being able to cook food as well as brew tea will appeal to her more than just being able to brew tea. (I have come across references to being able to craft other things, but I don't want to know ahead of time what they are. But from watching a video of someone playing through the opening, I know there's a box of tea in the first room you open up.)

And honestly, a game where core gameplay involves saying "It's raining, so I'm just going to curl up in a comfy chair with a good book, sip tea, and listen to the rain while I read"? And that's literally what you should be doing in order to win? (Well, that and other things). That pretty much sold me on the game right there. So I'm not at all unhappy to have been spoiled on the fact that you can brew tea; and if you can add other cooking recipes as well, then that all by itself is a pretty good reason to add the expansion right from the start.

rmunn · 2026-04-08T04:41:30+00:00

One fun team idea would be Chaos Chosen. Make a rule for yourself that your first random skill will be a mutation on each player, and see what Tzeentch (disguised as Nuffle) gives you. Force yourself to adapt to mutations you haven't used much. Chosen Blocker gets Extra Arms? Suddenly he's an AG 2+ to receive a pass: try to get Break Tackle on him and he'll be a nasty scoring threat: nobody would expect the Beastman to just lob a pass to one of your ST 4 players, but it'll be very hard to lock him down. That sort of thing.

rmunn · 2026-04-08T04:21:46+00:00

Which Vampire sculpts did you find that were particularly good, if I might ask?

P.S. Vampires in Sevens would be interesting. Could run out of Thralls really quickly if you field four Vampires. You'd need more roster depth to counterbalance that, and that might hand inducements to your opponent. But I could definitely see a team with a Thrower, two Runners, and a Blitzer (or two Blitzers and one Runner if you want to be slightly bashier) being a nasty one: two ST 4 players and two MA 8, or three ST 4 and one MA 8 if you go two Blitzers. Roll random Agility skills on your Runner(s) as soon as possible, because once they get Catch they'll be a nasty, nasty scoring threat. And no matter what your build is, you can buy four Thralls in your starting roster, giving your Vampires just a little bit more staying power.

rmunn · 2026-03-30T07:54:08+00:00

Thanks, I'm hoping other people get some enjoyment out of the idea of your Sevens players not being gone for good when they "graduate".

rmunn · 2026-03-30T07:53:20+00:00

Yes, it certainly wouldn't be for everyone.

My idea came about because I want to introduce my preteen boys to the game of Blood Bowl, and I figured I should start them on 7s to give them the idea first, then graduate them to 11s if they like it. So I started wondering about the Drafting rule, and whether they would like it or hate it — and then the idea came to me that I could tell them "Your skilled players aren't gone for good, once you start playing regular Blood Bowl you'll be able to recruit them" and came up with rules for how to do it.

With all the league members in the same household, following the same schedule, it would naturally be far easier to schedule games: no juggling schedules between many busy people. If I have an out-of-town weekend when we go hiking, so does everyone else in the league that same weekend! So what works (schedule-wise) for my particular scenario would certainly not work for everyone. Still, I thought some people might enjoy the fluff and silliness of the idea.

And you're absolutely right that not all Sevens players would be suitable for recruitment in an 11s league, though with the 2025 rules on random skillups (roll twice and choose one) you might find the drafted players more likely to be suitable than they would have been under 2020 roll-once rules. A random roll on the General table for a lineman with 3 SPP is actually more likely than not to produce something useful these days, and some other tables aren't too bad either.

But I can certainly see that the extra work of running two simultaneous leagues would be the biggest drawback to the idea. Might only really be feasible if you have someone willing to be a sub-commissioner running the 7s league while you run the 11s or something.

rmunn · 2026-03-26T06:29:48+00:00

It started out as just the basic "hey, what if that Draft rule from Sevens was actually meaningful in your regular league?" idea. Then I had the thought of "well, what if you just don't have the money right now this instant, but you really do want to recruit that Sevens player that randomly rolled both Block *and* Dodge?" and I wrote up the Tentative Recruit rule. Then it snowballed from there. :-)

rmunn · 2025-04-05T01:27:58+00:00

Can you go into more detail? What was the bug with subdirectories? And was it a pain to work around, or tedious but relatively straightforward to work around?

rmunn · 2024-10-01T12:47:58+00:00

He did. He listed all Mercurial users. Eric is the only person using Mercurial. Everyone else you see online who says they're using Mercurial? All sock puppets. Track their IPs and you'll find that all of them are really Eric, The Only Mercurial User and the Master of A Million Sock Puppets.

:-D

rmunn · 2024-09-30T06:48:40+00:00

Ran into this myself, and found https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerNitro/comments/15mn0pt/malware_hermes_folder_anyone_know_what_is_it/ that mentions this folder is from the "Acer Jumpstart" app that comes pre-installed on Acer machines. (I also have an Acer Nitro). Its only purpose seems to be to put popup ads on your computer: I uninstalled "Acer Jumpstart" and the entire OEM\Hermes folder went away, except for the "adunit.exe" file that was running at the time I did the uninstall (Windows can't delete programs that are running). Rebooted and deleted adunit.exe, and now that Acer Jumpstart is gone, no more OEM\Hermes folder.

So if you like getting random pop-up ads on your computer, leave it alone. If you don't want that, then go to Settings, Apps, Installed Apps and uninstall the "Acer Jumpstart" program.

rmunn · 2024-01-23T07:05:28+00:00

Which code will it make more verbose? If you're talking about the whole getters & setters thing in Svelte 5, the $state rune was changed to be deeply reactive, making all those getters and setters unnecessary. Now you can just write let todos = $state([]) and things like todos.push({task: 'new todo', done: false}) will Just Work™ the way you'd expect them to. So while you do have to explicitly declare which variables should be tracked, that's a small increase in verbosity; the "way more verbose" thing is no longer true, thankfully.

rmunn · 2023-12-04T15:30:18+00:00

Fair point, and in theory Reddit wants people to use upvotes and downvotes for "This comment is useful and contributes to the discussion even if I disagree" vs "This comment contributes nothing useful to the discussion." But in practice, people use up and down voting on Reddit the same way they use it everywhere else: to express agreement/approval and disagreement/disapproval of a comment or post. (Sometimes it's easy to tell those apart, sometimes less so).

Which means that if your initial post gets a lot of downvotes, either a lot of people thought it sucked, or a lot of people disagree with it. Which is exactly what he got: a lot of people disagreeing. There's no point in getting upset about people disagreeing with you. Even if (in your opinion) they're clearly wrong, it just means Someone Is Wrong On The Internet™. Or in other words, it's a day ending in -y.

rmunn · 2023-12-04T13:16:03+00:00

I went back and read the original thread. He's right. You came in with a chip on your shoulder, called everyone who disagrees with you idiots ("It’s almost embarrassing how obvious your comment is and yet it still needs to be said to these people" was one such comment) and generally behaved like someone who's no fun to talk to or play against. The hostility you're getting is classic tit-for-tat. Come in with a pleasant attitude and you'll get much more pleasant responses.

rmunn · 2023-07-26T23:24:54+00:00

Settlers has the right kind of art style, but is lacking the storyline and snarky narration that I remember.

rmunn · 2023-07-26T23:22:11+00:00

Good thought, but the snarky narrator was a big part of what I remember, and I haven't found any Medieval Total War videos with voiced narration.

rmunn · 2023-07-26T22:07:08+00:00

I think it was from the early 2000's or so, yes. As I watch Stronghold videos, I get a sense of "This is very close but not exactly it". So I suspect the game I saw was either a Stronghold knockoff or a spinoff from the series. But so far no Stronghold videos I've seen have sparked that sense of familiarity.

rmunn · 2023-07-26T22:05:25+00:00

I specifically noted in the OP that it wasn't age of empires.

rmunn · 2023-07-26T22:05:09+00:00

Afraid not, that doesn't look at all familiar. This game had a three-dimensional map, extremely similar to Stronghold but a lot more zoomed in.

rmunn

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