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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)KI
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7 mo. ago

  • stealth archer to the nth degree

    There are some good reads out there about invisibility in the fantasy worlds. I think one of the 3.5e splat books had an entire section dedicated to it (and I can't find it right now, super annoying). Most enemies, from the lowest tech bandit gang to a king's treasury, will have some idea about how to deal with it, because they live in a world where it happens, gets routine gossip on, and they've probably heard some strange creaks in the night (a tree branch, really) that they just know was an invisible demon creeping around when they were a vulnerable child...

    It isn't really raining on your characters' parade to have the people in the world they live in expect things that go on in said world. Businesses and commonfolk alike have likely worried about everything from teleporting frog-polymorphing wizards to hell portals opening in their back room, and probably have some idea about what they think they would do.

    Doors at night would have ceramic bowls stacked next to them, windows might have small screens or strings that need to be cut, any guard that is part of a decent organization will have resources stored somewhere to counter it (faerie fire or more 'out there' ideas like create water). I don't know about your edition, but 3.5e had specific checks that would tip off people that something is around. The sound of an imp's wings alone is going to be heard anywhere other than a raucous tavern (if you've ever heard a bird or bat flying by, imagine something 10x as heavy with leathery wings), because it isn't a superb owl, after all. Even mundane things would add up. Imagine the classic bell that rings when someone enters through a shop door. It was never intended to be an 'anti invisibility' thing, but it sure adds thematic drama to the affair.

  • If they can somehow prove that the arrest or search was illegal, that’s a huge deal and will get a ton of evidence tossed or even the whole trial nullified.

    I can nearly guarantee you that one of the courts, whether the current court or a later appellant court, will weasel their way to saying that the evidence being used would have been found anyway (the second exception), and thus won't get thrown out even if they admit to the search being illegal.

  • One that's big enough to cuddle us. They also should get along fine in the increasingly small environments we are being shoved into. Having a newly domesticated animal that is limited to the ultra rich with giant estates is pointless, right? Bonus points if we can make it an environmental win as well.

    Just about everything 'big' fails at being in an apartment though. Big cats, even the smaller ones among them, need more room. Same with bears, moose (cooool, dudes, am I right? Imagine lounging with a moose), elk, whales, dolphins... bah.

    My idea, then? Giant birds. Big enough to lay on you when on the couch, but could be let loose to fly around while you're at work. It would take an incredible amount of domestication to get them to go and come back, but if we're talking hypotheticals and theoreticals and blue fantasy, I think giant birds would be the way to go. Take your pick of them. The steller's sea eagle and especially the phillipine eagle speak to me, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at a swan, a goshawk, or a red kite. Feed them well at home, pretend that during the domestication process we made the nesting area easy to clean, and imagine being able to set it loose on stupid fascist leaders.

  • His honest reply about the state of Linux Gaming

    I'm betting it's far from anything 'honest.' Stir up a little controversy (even if it's as stupid as linux/windows fanbois arguing in the comments), get more clicks and rewards for 'engagement' from the algorithm.

    Maybe he is happy with linux as a system, but I bet this was thought over before it was posted.

  • Honestly, that's all they're good for: creating paranoia/terror/nervousness in the subject. Go read the 'how to beat a polygraph' book. Knowledge is calming.

    Also? It's not anything to do with symptoms showing stronger on baseline questions. The only big giveaway is breathing. I work in the medical field. Blood pressure, heart rate, bla bla bla... they all vary with frequencies and magnitudes that don't allow them to be filtered from responses that do signify anything. The only vital sign that has a low enough rate for changes to really be detected is how often you take a breath. If you control that, the game is over. A really observant tester watching a testee attempting (poorly) to mask breathing rate may notice something is off, but it's still a judgement call whether it's due to nervousness and the attempt to calm down, or actual deception.

    The best way to 'pass' a polygraph is to be just nice/cute enough to get the tester to like you somewhat, and then control your breathing. The proper test has them talking to you for at least a half hour beforehand so they can 'get an idea' about you, so you have plenty of time to be friendly. Take advantage of that. There is some nice research out there about self-disclosures and their effect on being liked. If they see a pattern that could be you being nervous, could be you trying to deceive, being liked will tip them towards the kinder perception.

  • Heh, the amerikkkan answer is simple: don't let them rent next to you. They've accomplished it by ridiculous rent prices, charging inmates to be in jail (so they come out with debt), and shackling them to low paying jobs.

  • I can't get deep into the search right now, but you can check the big overviews. It's called the 'Hygiene Hypothesis' and it's been a topic for quite a while. Some interesting articles that will get you in the general area are about some specific allergens, microbiome influence on allergens, and this one I can't find a link for right now, but look up the research on Finnish children who became politically separated from their close relatives by a political border (when the USSR and the 'western world' became contentious and the flow of people became stymied). That one is particularly interesting because you have three populations: the USSR folks at the border (a rural area), the Finnish folks at the border (a rural area), and the Finnish folks away from the border in the urban areas. If I remember correctly, the Finnish word for autoimmune disorders has literal translation of 'clean house disease' or something similar.

    What makes the border research interesting is you have two 'western medicine' groups split by the rural/urban divide and a rural 'other' category to compare to. I can't remember if they had issues and couldn't include the USSR urban group, or if it was too great of a divide genetically/diversity-wise to include to accurately compare without adding a third condition.

  • sometimes nvidia drivers are in a state that breaks display reinit on wake from sleep

    Hmm, got a question for you about that. What did that appear as for you? Just a black screen and nothing else if it went to sleep?

    I had a recently installed app fuck something in my settings so my display is going to sleep after 10 minutes, and when I wake it up I get a normal appearing lock screen with a login. If I login, the screen goes black and all I can see is the mouse cursor. I think about 1 time in 10 it will have no issues and I get back to whatever I'm doing.

  • Well, I love D&D for it's ability to pull off dungeoneering (and even though I didn't like it the most, 4E was definitely the most streamlined, fight me), WoD because the books are so freaking amazing to read through (seriously, the little vignettes are bone-melting good in the core books), and shadowrun because it predicts well (super sad face right now), but none off them can hold a sock in terms of 'fun' to my favorite.

    FATE. It's beautiful. From the very onset of character creation it gets the group working in a collaborative fashion to build a story. The way it handles action scenes is at the very soul off old anime and hero fiction where saying "I believe I can win!" and then changing the win condition by kicking over a scene prop to give you a beautiful bonus... I love it. Using your character's main description in an inventive way by twisting the meaning (and being encouraged to do so!) is just classic hand-holding-leading you to think creatively without explicitly guiding you to be more creative.

  • We stand on the shoulders of giants. I don't know how many of us repeated the experiments in our chemistry textbooks to prove that what was claimed was correct. A few piddling things here and there, but when did I get to build a nuclear bomb?

  • so instead they bribed lots of game developers to make things Epic exclusive.

    Fuck Epic. I just lost the ability to play rocket league because they bought the developers, ripped it off of steam, and now force you to agree to some wickedly invasive TOS to have an epic account.