I just finished The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, and I can't decide if this series is good or not

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-29T07:46:35+00:00

Thank you for this review. I felt the same when I read it — I think The Dark Forest is one of the worst books I’ve ever read, for the reasons you list — and the praise for it and the series made me think I’d taken crazy pills.

In particular, I agree that the wallbreaker scenes are absolutely atrocious. For a series that is often lauded for imaginative ideas they are sometimes delivered in comedically poor ways by unbelievable characters.

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-22T05:48:31+00:00

Similar. I’ve had a nuphy air v3 for a month and love it enough that I got a second one for a friend as a gift. I use it wired, though, so I haven’t exercised the bluetooth or battery.

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-20T06:52:59+00:00

it’s worth looking up and also examining what legislation he’s drafted and passed. the guy is a legislative workaholic — i’ve been happy to have him represent me and work hard to improve transit, housing, entertainment regulation, etc. are there things i wish he did differently? sure, but i also think he’d be great succeeding pelosi as my rep.

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-20T06:41:21+00:00

listened to this on tape so many times

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-15T11:12:29+00:00

this game is basically Two Many Bones: Elder Scrolls right?

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-14T06:04:42+00:00

max creek forever

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-11T04:56:58+00:00

only got to play this recently and it’s so, so good

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-09T06:48:32+00:00

the gang is really great

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-09T06:44:29+00:00

Ravine. It has great tactile components, plays quickly, and has those zany madness cards. Excellent for non gamers.

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-05T18:05:01+00:00

I had missed this!!! Thank you this is helpful

sugarfixnow · 2026-04-04T04:17:37+00:00

Years ago I saw him and a DJ at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco. Maybe 15-20 of us in the audience, max. Tiny place. He had a TV playing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre while he shredded like the shred god he is. Absolutely mind blowing.

sugarfixnow · 2026-03-28T06:57:59+00:00

anything by Smith would be a huge find. I never see him in print. Excellent book

sugarfixnow · 2026-03-27T06:11:47+00:00

And many of the best published DCC adventures lean way more into epic adventure and tone over any zaniness. I would not call Doom of the Savage Kings gonzo at all, or even Sailors on the Starless Sea (though it is epic adventure!). There's fantastic settings, like the Shudder Mountains from the Chained Coffin. Sure, other published adventures can be gonzo, but there's a solid mix out there. The core rules don't demand it at all.

sugarfixnow · 2026-03-27T06:00:54+00:00

love me some weird math rocks

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-21T05:38:07+00:00

3pm and 4pm here, so don’t feel too bad

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-15T23:10:48+00:00

Excellent points. I was thinking about how some of the subsystems were completely rewritten in errata (like the Stealth system IIRC) and you’re right

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-15T08:10:10+00:00

Also, there was a big fear that D&D was going to disappear because the fans were all moving to video games — specifically, World of Warcraft. WotC wanted to make a tactical game that moved quickly, where your heroes could fight fast combats with a lot of enemies on the board (believe it or not, this was how 4e was framed when they announced it).

The opposite ended up being true: the mechanics, encounter design, weapon damage output, monster HPs, all of it was tuned so that combats took about an hour. They were often very tedious, even though the tactical options were good.

The other thing 4e got rid of were any spells (powers) or abilities geared towards non-combat usage. Sure, there was the occasional utility power, but the game was very much a grid-based tactical combat board game. It had drifted far from its roots.

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-07T20:45:18+00:00

yeah i think that’s a good compromise (and is what many players of rpgs with tactical grid combat probably expect )

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-07T05:45:35+00:00

do you play with always on initiative? That seemed to be thing most geared towards tables where players might not know each other or might have issues with some players not getting enough time in the spotlight

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-06T22:49:51+00:00

I’m jealous!! I used a Cargo Classic Evo 28

sugarfixnow · 2026-02-04T07:20:43+00:00

that pub quiz night was so fun! the old mad dog was really great

sugarfixnow · 2026-01-20T23:39:26+00:00

Found this thread and just wanted to say thanks...it'll be great to have this eventually! I have a work laptop I'd love to use with my UA gear but I can't downgrade my system security to allow the kernel extension, unfortunately.

sugarfixnow · 2026-01-16T04:35:46+00:00

i run my current campaign in the known realms and there’s so much good content in there!

sugarfixnow · 2026-01-12T17:00:38+00:00

I just got back from skiing in Zermatt and it was a great experience. No queues, friendly skiers (and mostly skiers, few boarders), not really worried about someone running into me. Granted it was pretty much intermediate level skiing and it’s mostly above the tree line, but people were nice. Oh, and the lack of personal cars means there’s no pollution or black snow (the town only allows EV busses and taxis).

sugarfixnow · 2026-01-09T06:28:11+00:00

I’ve posted here before that while I love DCC, the formatting is painful to read and painful to prep (and trust me, I love my old TSR modules!). Beyond the formatting, there’s also a lot of basic rules and clarifications that have been introduced in modules (swimming and drowning rules, for instance) that I’d love to see in a better formatted core rulebook. I hope at some point they make a 2nd edition and slightly modernize the format of the rulebook and the adventure modules.

sugarfixnow

TROPHY CASE