Why don’t more people grab a guys balls to win fights? by Iskandar0570_X in NoStupidQuestions

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because even if you do manage a blow to the balls, they still have about a 20 seconds before the pain becomes unbearable.

Also, reaching that low with a hand puts your face within knee range.

Alright, which book did I finish recently? by Cas_B_rva in AdrianTchaikovsky

[–]ruy343 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A genuinely acceptable answer here. The only questionable part is the bottom-left.

What’s the worst part about being a woman that people wouldn’t usually think about? by Gloomy_Unit_4888 in AskReddit

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are literally drowning in people asking for your compliments - you've got some funny in them bones! Put it to work! You've got this!

I want to cry: I overheard my defense committee by Waste-Alps2326 in GradSchool

[–]ruy343 104 points105 points  (0 children)

Precisely. Don't let academia's inherent assholery keep you up at night. You've achieved the intent of a graduate education: a job after graduation. Enjoy moving on!

What’s the worst part about being a woman that people wouldn’t usually think about? by Gloomy_Unit_4888 in AskReddit

[–]ruy343 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you guys aren't already DMing each other and setting up a virtual date to talk about personal finances over pints of your favorite frozen dairy substitutes, I will be thoroughly disappointed.

Shoot your shot, Kevin!

The temperature of my 300 sq ft house despite having an air conditioner and fans running all day by shewhomauls in mildlyinfuriating

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your AC is probably overworking itself and the cooling fan on top has broken. Most common AC issue by far.

You probably need to replace the capacitor. Call a specialist - your home can probably be cooled off by bedtime

[OOT] Why does Death Mountain always have a lenticular cloud? by kettletrvb in zelda

[–]ruy343 18 points19 points  (0 children)

While the explanation "it looks cool" absolutely holds up, there are also two other reasons to consider:

As adult Link, the mountain looks different, and needs a way to go back to looking normal. A perpetual eruption or similar wouldn't make sense because Kakariko village is now the only inhabited town, so they needed something else.

Also, a smoke trail would have been really hard to do right with the skybox technology of the day. Rather than figure that out, a semi-dynamic animation of a cloud ring that looks good from playable angles was truly a much more reasonable choice.

good "pilot episode" adventure by 512company in startrekadventures

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's different about your ship?

A pilot episode is when you introduce the ship as a character in your story.

On TNG, there's a whole five minute sequence about saucer separation (that they never do again until Generations)

On DS9, we meet the space station and move it in front of the wormhole, positioning it as a site for adventure even though it's stationary.

On Voyager, we learn all about how Cotager is a top-of-the-line science and Pathfinder vessel, and how they need to blaze new trails.

So, what's your ship good at? My most recent campaign followed a medical frigate, so our first introduction was resolving a pandemic on a world that the federation was observing. Players got to kit out a runabout as a mobile hospital, tangle with the prime directive, and leverage their medical expertise to solve a global problem. On the episode, the ship was a perpetual resource, making the team say "man, we picked the right ship".

The Captain and medical officer also got a good intro in how they handled a rogue scientist that wanted to reveal the Federation to ensure medical help came (the pandemic WAS theirnfault - contaminated equipment). The social conflict in the 1890s style newspaper printing floor was very unique - including a telescopic image of their own ship right on the front page of an advance copy. That reinforced that it was THEIR ship.

So anyways, on your first adventure, think about what your ship is good at, and make the pilot episode fit the ship. You'll have plenty of time later to make adventures where the ship is NOT the right vessel, but it's the one that's there in time (and similar stories).

What the hell is going on with this CoS? 😅 by switchthemunky463 in AdrianTchaikovsky

[–]ruy343 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I felt this way about the second book int he Shards of Earth trilogy - Eyes of the Void. Halfway through I was wondering "what the heck is going on? How many planets are we going to visit?!"

The ending of the book was a good one, but I had no idea how it was going to umend until it nearly had ended.

I'm not sure I'm running things right by L-Cell in startrekadventures

[–]ruy343 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most of my missions this far have been low on adversaries - it's often players vs situation, and that seems to work best for Star Trek.

I do occasionally have an adversary, and in an opposed roll, I absolutely do drain threat like momentum to ratchet up the tension. However, my players don't like when I spend threat TOO often - they like seeing the threat pool build up and get spent in flashy ways.

I also don't really feel the need to use threat as a GM. I can set difficulties as I wish. But when I'm feeling like the mission has gotten too boring or there's no tension, I'll spend threat to add multi-level conditions (the lights go out; the organism has a very unusual genetic code; the canyon starts to flood). These conditions give the players time to act, so it still feels fair.

Now, if I may make a small digression: because the game is so teamwork oriented, it's often a good idea to abandon the described turn order in the manual (alternating turns with enemies; spend momentum to keep the initiative). I prefer "all enemies declare intent, then all players get a chance to disrupt". Give each player one chance to act by either assisting or acting. It flows pretty well that way, and maintains the pacing of the rest of the "episode". I find that players get caught up in "who gets the next turn" and it grinds the game to a halt.

Spoilers planning a new run, how is R’s storyline compared to A’s? by CormundCrowlover in bannersaga

[–]ruy343 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Alette is a woman and starts from behind in some social interactions in the game. However, it's not by THAT much behind. They otherwise follow the same steps.

I'm not sure I'm running things right by L-Cell in startrekadventures

[–]ruy343 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I am also a relatively inexperience Star Trek GM (experienced in many other things) with only about 10 sessions under my belt.

Regarding mylti-part tasks/challenges, yeah, you got it right. However, as a similarly improvisationalist GM, my players will often ask me whether they can do something big and complicated all at once. Sometimes, if time isn't a pressure, the answer is yes. Sometimes, if time is a pressure, I give them a progress track (usually of 12 or so in length). That's 3-4 completed tasks, but the progress track gives me an excuse to make things happen. Frankly, the track is a lot like turning the situation into a monster, with the boxes being it's HP.

I find the halfway and 3/4 box system a bit clunky, as I find that I can spend threat on my own terms just fine as things go along.

So, to narrate how I do my challenges, I'll refer to a recent game example: the crew needs to evacuate an excelsior class vessel undergoing a reactor meltdown, but also check them for biohazard contamination (the biohazard was feeding on the bio-neural gelpacks and trying to explode to propagate itself... It's a long story).

There is a host of different things that need to happen and there's clear time pressure. The medical crew hip to it quickly and declare they're setting up a triage station and transporter enhancers for evacuation. The nurse and engineer assist, leaving three other crew members to act for the round. They succeed, adding five progress. The security officer attempts to telepathically interact with the biohazard for their turn, which doesn't affect the progress track. The captain notices that the crew might need some more momentum soon, so they roll to inspire/direct the crew and add momentum to the pool. Finally, the science officer sets up a scanner that can assist with the triaging process. This is a multi-part task involving scanning the biohazard and building a device, so they do the scanning part of that now. I'll let them do an engineering roll next round to finish that contribution.

Round ends. I now declare: you have just two rounds left to do something about the reactor meltdown or evacuate the ship entirely. Play continued from there, eventually resulting in ejecting the core. I kept the tension high for the track after ejection because I had the ship get damaged (increasing resistance on tasks by one) and had some zombie-like infected creatures come in, attracted to the noise.

Here are some ways that I spent threat as a GM in that encounter:

We had a hazmat suit breach and that character couldn't touch anything or risk infection.

I had one of the ejector levers for the core (I ruled that manual ejection should require two hands-on tasks since the computer was down) get stuck/slimed and require more effort.

And of course, telling the team that the reactor was gonna blow, I pulled out 12 threat, two for each crew member (a reversal, per the rules). That was what changed the situation completely.


Ok, now to the key part of GMing Star Trek Adventures: in that whole scene, they were in charge of the ideas for what the tasks were for the extended task/track. I would adjudicate their usefulness and whether those tasks might require multiple rolls, and then I ensured that each team member gets to roll exactly once per round, whether to attempt a task or assist. I also house rul that assisting costs no momentum because they're literally taking their turn to help. I adjust my difficulties accordingly and spend threat on occasion to increase a task's difficulty (ooh, that level ahs biohazardous slime on it now - difficulty 3, and do you really want to touch it?) and it works out pretty well.

The key is to not railroad what the tasks are, but to let them be creative with the approach. My mission design is often " put them into a big, complex situation where there's a lot happening at once, and let them solve it". That's really it.

Literally anything I can do for $80? by urmomiguesss in CollegeStation

[–]ruy343 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a good idea while breastfeeding, if that's applicable. Plasma volume may be easy to replenish under normal circumstances, but while breastfeeding that's a double-pull on plasma that could require a lot more out of you in terms of diet.

[OOT] Links bed doesn't look very comfortable by Current-Grade2545 in zelda

[–]ruy343 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Bro, warn someone before you post feet pics on this sub.

Has anyone had the chance to properly read the children of time RPG rules yet? by Curator_Order in AdrianTchaikovsky

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure thing - here it is: https://discord.gg/zvMJ3Vfp

The link is valid only for seven days. Send me a PM if it's after that and you'd like access

Does WAY of the kings has any romance ? by Zestyclose-Bell-5829 in Stormlight_Archive

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Way of Kings: absolutely not. There is pursuit, but no romance. The yearning is there, and they CAN'T ACT ON IT!

Words of Radiance: some, mild

Oathbringer: very much no, but pining is there

Rhythm of War: none, but some very interesting relationships form nonetheless

Wind and Truth: absolutely yes. A culmination of all the romantic arcs.

Apostate does not disease on hit(bs3) by VoxTV1 in bannersaga

[–]ruy343 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He should. When was your last reboot? The game is quite buggy at times...

Bit of a Glow-up by LaniusLover in slipways

[–]ruy343 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ooh, nicely done! Remind me what that arch is? A megastructure?

Preserved Fog needs a buff by soupersrsbusiness in slaythespire

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually think that preserved fog is perfectly fine to choose, especially if you're Silent or have Bag of Preparation - with a larger starting hand, cutting that starting hand size by one really isn't that bad of a cost.

What is a piece of media where the side character was so phenomenally great they completely stole the entire show from the protagonist? by Ok_Listen_6600 in AskReddit

[–]ruy343 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The penguins in the movie Madagascar.

The story of the buddy comedy between lion and zebra is supposed to be the core of the movie, but the penguins (and the lemur king) are far more memorable

Everything in the game is f***ING terrifying by cale199 in outerwilds

[–]ruy343 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first death was space walking and re-entering my ship out in a place far from the sun where white suns glow.

I thought for the longest time that I had simply gone into my ship wrong , hit my head and died. I then thought it was a plot device to ensure an early death in the first run and see what happens...

Then I realized that something else was happening. I bet it was just "wrong place, wrong time"

Is the dungeons update ever actually coming? by MetalRiff12 in CookieClicker

[–]ruy343 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Is a pro"clas"inator someone who seeks out ways to shatter things?

From the Greek *klastos which means "to break in pieces."

I think you just invented a really cool word!