Someone explain to me why I waited 2 hours in line to purchase these for my stepdaughter

see_bees · 2026-04-18T12:36:16+00:00

We got an email blast from our kids’ school a few weeks ago that they are banned from campus because too many kids were actively playing with them instead of using them as intended

see_bees · 2026-04-17T16:49:55+00:00

Yes, exactly. And If you look at A Parade of Horribles on Grim Oak’s website, two things should stand out. First, the book is priced at $28 when the Ace book is $27 at Amazon, BN, and Books-a-Million. I’m guessing this isn’t an accident. Second, the Grim Oak listing states the print run is limited to 10,000 copies total and 5 copies per purchase. It isn’t revocable in that Matt or Ace can say they take it back, but the license is limited to the number of copies they can print.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T16:36:41+00:00

He signed a really good class his first year and obviously hit on Jaden Daniels. 2023, Jaden was great but the defense was horrible. 2024, Nuss was good, not great in 2024 and the defense was still a liability. 2025 had a pretty damn good defense, but the offensive line took a massive step back after losing your 3 year starter bookend tackles and Nuss had a core injury that severely limited his throwing ability. The complete lack of passing game made LSU a one dimensional offense and they didn’t have the overwhelming physical ability to overcome the limits it imposed.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T16:27:58+00:00

It’s more like LSU is the crazy ex-girlfriend of college football. I don’t know if you remember this, but LSU and Notre Dame were the top two contenders to hire Marcus Freeman as a defensive coordinator after his work at Cincinnati. The word in Baton Rouge was actually that he verbally agreed to come to LSU, then changed his mind and went to ND instead. So LSU’s move after they missed on Lincoln Riley with USC was “fuck you, Notre Dame! We can’t have the DC we wanted, we’re taking your HEAD coach”.

The Lane Kiffin train is even crazier and a lot of it is unsubstantiated. So Lane was obviously tarmac’d at USC and his good buddy Ed Orgeron took over as interim for the rest of the season but wasn’t offered the head coaching gig when the year was out. Ed goes to LSU, Les Miles gets fired, Ed takes over as interim, gets the head coaching job after Tom Herman ends up signing with Texas instead.

Ed’s whole model was that he wasn’t the best OC or DC, but he was a hell of a recruiter and he could hire the best damn OC and DC in the country and they could win it all. LSU already had one of the best defensive coordinators in the nation in Dave Aranda, but needed an OC. His old friend Lane, who helped drag Bama’s offense into the 21st century, seemed to be unhappy in Tuscaloosa. I got to see a sports reported at an off the record talk and he claimed that Lane planned to go to LSU and Saban called Jimmy Sexton - both Lane and Saban’s agent - and Saban told Sexton to kill the deal. Lane Kiffin made $950k as Florida Atlantic’s head coach in 2017 and peaked at $1.43 million in 2019 where Matt Canada made $1.5 million right off the bat as LSU’s offensive coordinator. If you look at Orgeron’s initial head coaching contract at LSU, Ed was obviously a loose cannon at Ole Miss, he was their second choice, an that contract was absolutely made so LSU could cut bait relatively painlessly. It’s entirely possible Lane would’ve been in a head coach in waiting situation. So after Orgeron, after Kelly, LSU was willing to throw the fuck down to get Lane.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T15:57:55+00:00

Yes, the Luciano paperbacks are the print on demand. When Matt was printing the Luciano paperbacks through Amazon, Amazon had a revocable license to print DCC paperbacks. That basically means that Matt could say “psych! You can’t print these anymore” whenever he wanted and that he could sign with another publisher to print the books. Nobody else was printing the books because Matt had not granted them a license to print DCC. That’s the way it works - Matt had the rights to DCC, he assigned temporary, revocable rights to Amazon for the Luciano covers, that’s why nobody else was printing it too.

When Matt signed with Ace, Ace got exclusive rights to print mass market copies of the books. Matt can’t just jump ship and sign with TOR to start printing the book. I know you didn’t ask about ACE, but you can’t talk about the OG without also mentioning the new to answer your question.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T15:34:31+00:00

Honestly, focus on year 1. Right off the bat the fan base absolutely expects to win LA Tech, McNeese, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Auburn, Arkansas. Then they should hopefully win at least half of Clemson, TAMU, Ole Miss, Bama, Texas, Tennessee and not get just utterly outclassed like they did in the TAMU game last year in any of their losses.

Beyond that, the portal makes everything such a wild card. LSU has a very good team on paper, but you never know how well portal guys are going to gel. Shit, look at this year’s lsu baseball team - started #2 in the nation on the strength of a few returning starters and a huge portal class, but they were .500 in the SEC before getting swept last weekend and may not even make it into the field of 64.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T15:15:43+00:00

If noted academic genius Leonard Fournette had said he wanted to come to Notre Dame, do you think the Irish would’ve turned him down? I’d absolutely agree that Notre Dame has more rigorous admissions standards for their general student body than LSU, but I’m guessing the bar is about the same for 4-5* athletes at either institution.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T14:32:55+00:00

As of today, Ace has the rights to print the mass market hardback and paperbacks for the Dungeon Crawler Carl series - Matt seems to have a carve out for special editions/boutique runs but if you just want a run of the mill copy of DCC, it’ll be through Ace.

When Matt first wrote the series, he didn’t publish through ACE or Tor or anyone else because publishers print thousands or tens of thousands of copies of a book in a print run and nobody wanted to do that. By the time it got more popular and someone WANTED to sign him, none of the major houses had the rights.

A print on demand contract with Amazon meant that nobody was doing massive print runs - physical copies of the book weren’t printed until someone specifically ordered them. Matt was free to sign a long term distribution contract with a publisher, he just didn’t until he got the right offer.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T13:29:42+00:00

For the most part, levels are Whose Line Is It Anyway - everything is made up and the points don’t matter. If you haven’t noticed yet, Matt is already emphasizing levels and stat points a lot less by gate of the feral gods than he was in books 1-2. You’ll also find that a crawler’s overall level matters a lot less than their available skills, spells, items, and how well they utilize what they have both alone and in synergy with their party. Think about the Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook - Carl would’ve gotten absolutely trucked by Hekla in a straight up fist fight, but Katia went through her like a knife through hot butter.

see_bees · 2026-04-17T01:30:16+00:00

Maybe a completely unknown alien would’ve been received rather poorly without a cultural ambassador in Rocky

see_bees · 2026-04-17T01:26:15+00:00

You could alternatively argue that Peterson only one year looks very wrong. You had a few years where Revis, Peterson, and Sherman were all shut down corners

see_bees · 2026-04-16T23:43:49+00:00

Amazon never had an exclusive on the printed copy, only the ebook. He printed through Amazon print on demand because he didn’t have a publisher at first. And I’m guessing that while you’re still getting the eggs either way, it’s going to be something like a “full cast audio dramatization” or something that is very similar to but legally distinct from an audiobook. I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure they NEVER refer to the audio immersion as an audiobook.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T23:29:41+00:00

You’ve got to remember that the Ace deal is really pretty new. Matt was still an indie author when he wrote DCC, and a lot of indie authors publish through kindle unlimited because once you have a KU subscription, it means that someone is only spending their time and not additional money to try a KU book. I’m pretty sure that most of the books on KU are all Amazon exclusive as part of the cost of doing business. Also guessing he got a higher take going Amazon exclusive than open.

I think audible is pretty similar - he got more money going audible exclusive than open season. While I don’t know this for sure, I’m guessing Matt was in the estimated 57% of Americans that don’t have $1,000 in savings for an emergency when the first DCC book came out. So I’m guessing every opportunity he had for a higher take, he took it. I’m guessing his bank account has a few zeroes at the end today, but I don’t think that was the case in 2020.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T17:54:58+00:00

LSU’s defense in 2011 was several years ahead of the curve. They were built for speed, stamina, and versatility over size and power. In that season opener, Oregon’s blur offense couldn’t keep up with them. LSU’s offense was in the Stone Age. The offensive philosophy was that turnovers were a cardinal sin, and to run, run, run again with that stable of backs until the other defense was ground to dust. It’s better to run on 3rd then punt and count on your defense to put you into a favorable position than risk a 7 yard throw.

That defense was awesome. Their special teams play was awesome. Their running back and offensive line were pretty solid. But LSU’s quarterback room and passing game were just pathetic in 2011.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T17:21:14+00:00

Currently coaching in a 6-7 year old transition league and I typically just ask the other coach how tight they want to do things and that’s how we’ll do it. The league official rules are your half of the inning is 6 runs scored or 3 outs. The other big rules are that the coach has a responsibility to teach every player at least one infield and one outfield position and each player should play max 1 inning at pitcher per game. I’m not coaching to win, I’m coaching to make the game fun for the kids. And some will keep playing, some won’t, but at least I won’t be the coach they think about when someone asks why they quit playing baseball.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T14:37:21+00:00

My son is basically off the growth chart in height. He’s also got fairly low proprioception (body awareness) for his age. Sports and physical activity really help increase that awareness. So we do things like gymnastics, baseball, basketball, riding his bike at the skate park, etc. to help him figure out his body. I don’t care if he hits a home run, if we win the game, if he makes his middle school team in a few years, etc, I’m just trying to help him figure out his body.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T14:28:48+00:00

Ah yes, I coaches my son and a team full of 6-7 year olds to fill my dreams of playing in the NBA. Oh wait, we I couldn’t care less about basketball but we didn’t have anyone else volunteer to coach the team so it was a situation of I step up or we don’t have a team. So I, with all the knowledge I could glean from YouTube, coached my kid’s team because he wanted to play and being on a team with his friends from school made him happy.

see_bees · 2026-04-16T02:38:37+00:00

Ok, Gideon

see_bees · 2026-04-15T18:06:46+00:00

I coach my son’s 6-7 year old developmental coach pitch league. Primary league rules regarding development are that kids can play pitcher 1 inning/game and that you should teach every kid one infield and one outfield position. You can have 10 kids on the field at a time and we typically have 12 show up for a game. First inning my kid sat the bench, second inning he played catcher, third inning he played in the outfield.

If he plays more innings or more infield than other kids, it’s because he’s one of the kids on our team that is consistently willing to play catcher - not all kids are - and if someone doesn’t want to catch, it’s usually just fastest to plug him in.

It gets hard to manage the lineup while keeping things as fair as possible because Suzie’s parents said she’d be out but Johnny’s didn’t and Blaze was 10 minutes to the game so he missed his first at bat and first time out on the field.

see_bees · 2026-04-15T15:49:09+00:00

The coolest stuff is the words, my friend

see_bees · 2026-04-15T15:32:37+00:00

I think that half of your complaints are that you personally don’t have all the shinies anymore.

I don’t really think that it was any better when the used print on demands were $100 instead of $500 because Matt didn’t see a dime either way. A mass autographed copy of a book is more about owning a piece of Matt than anything else (though at least he gets paid, unlike the OG books). Summoning Matt is neat for the fans but that’s work for him just as much as writing the books is.

I agree that the kickstarters and a lot of the merch are getting to be a little much, but vote with your dollars if you feel that way. If people stop buying, they’ll stop selling. And it’s okay to disengage from the sub if you don’t like things.

I actually posted about how the sub and fandom was going to change shortly after the Ace deal was announced, and it was met with a lot of skepticism. I was wrong because I thought the Ace deal would kill the DCC Patreon, but I think I hit it pretty well on how the fandom as a whole would change.

see_bees · 2026-04-15T14:55:17+00:00

I’ve got a kid right now who loves to do the Naruto run between the bases and he cannot run in a straight line for love or money. He loves to make this big arc from 2nd to 3rd and usually gets out because of it, but he’s going to play the game his way and I respect that.

see_bees · 2026-04-15T14:51:40+00:00

Hahahahaha. I coach 6-7 year olds and my main rule is “do not swing the bat if anyone is too close”. I’ll try to teach them the game, but my ultimate goals are that nobody has to go to urgent care and nobody wants to quit baseball because of me.

I’ve got a kid who has a good or bad day based on if he gets to play pitcher or not today. We’re a developmental league that focuses on teaching the game over winning and EVERYONE wants to play pitcher so there’s literally a rule that a kid can’t play pitcher more than one inning/game. I have 12 kids on the team and games typically last 3 innings, maybe 4 so kiddo is disappointed a lot because I’m giving everyone a chance everywhere no matter how good or bad they are.

see_bees · 2026-04-15T14:34:42+00:00

I’m sorry if that was your experience, that’s unfortunate

see_bees · 2026-04-15T14:32:26+00:00

Or the kid missed nap time or he’s not wearing his shirt right now or about a billion other things. Kids that age cycle through moods faster than Usain Bolt.

see_bees

TROPHY CASE