Trilodroid

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Petroglyphs for d&d inspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7X2c9VTbJM

DCC or just d&d can use ideas

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Is his cave voice same as the niner 49er

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX5Kd1rwUUg

Did Fred’s voice on Scooby Doo.

Miner 49er?

Megatron. Dr. Claw

Roy Clark super classical guitar

Yeah Roy Clark is insane. Hee haw, but watch yt of him. Fast, inventive, incredible.

D&D words - Geas pronounced GESH; Draught is DRAFT

TIL the real pronunciation of Geas. Reddit.

It's pronounced "gesh". With a hard g, and an e like in the word "bed". It's apparently derived from Gaelic.

Another Irish dude says he says it like "Geese". Like the bird?
Another Irishman here and while my fluency as gaeilge is not 100% I've heard in this word used in stories and folklore pronounced phonetically identical to guise (as in disguise) and gas. Never with a 'sh' at the end.

draught is pronounced DRAFT. It's just the dern Brit spelling of draft. Holy cow.

Ah, but you also have the English word drought, which is pronounced "drout". As in "drOWWt" as in, it's super dry, we are in a drought.

Haste spell in B/X mentions "Speeded Up", and sure enough, that is considered proper English, though less common than "sped" or "sped up".

B/X style Magic Spell rules, https://epicsavingthrow.com/b-x-spell-rules-summaries/

https://epicsavingthrow.com/b-x-spell-rules-summaries/

Very helpful to remember old B/X rules.

Maybe this too: https://vanishingtower.blogspot.com/2017/03/bx-spellcasting-by-book.html

Haste doesn't affect spells or wands.
Slow doesn't affect spells or wands.
Lightning Bolt: A bright 5-foot-wide, 60-foot-long blast of electrical energy, heat, and thunder burst from a point up to 180 feet away from you. Anyone caught on this path suffers 1d6 damage per your caster level, or half that damage if successful on a saving throw versus spells. If the lightning bolt strikes a solid surface before reaching its 60-foot length, it will extend back toward the caster until it reaches its full length.
Mirror Image: You become surrounded by 1d4 illusionary duplicates of yourself. Any attack targeting you will instead target a duplicate, which then instantly vanishes regardless of the attacker’s “to hit” roll. All remaining mirror images of yourself vanish after one hour.
Phantasmal Force: A moving illusionary vision covers a 20-foot cube (20x20x20) at a point up to 240 feet away. If anything touches the illusion (Armor Class 9), the spell is broken and the vision disappears. If the illusion appears to attack someone or create a damaging hazard (fire, a collapsing wall), targets may make a saving throw versus spells to disbelieve the illusion. This spell never inflicts any real damage; targets that fail the save will believe they have been hurt and become unconscious at “zero hit points,” or suffer some other appropriate consequence (paralyzed if “turned to stone”). Fooled targets remain affected for 10 to 40 minutes (1d4 x 10). The illusion persists as long as the caster concentrates, remains in position, and is not targeted by an attack; otherwise, it disappears and does not return.
Raise Dead/Finger of Death: --When reversed, this spell forces one target within 120 feet to succeed at a saving throw versus death ray or immediately die.
Read Magic: For 10 minutes, you know how to read one magic-user spell scroll and understand how to cast it at any point in the future. This spell may also be used to learn spells from the spellbook of another magic-user.
Shield: For 20 minutes, a magical barrier gives you an Armor Class of AC 2 against missiles and AC 4 against other attacks.
Silence 15-Foot Radius: A point within 180 feet becomes the center of a 15-foot-radius area inside which no sound can be made for two hours. Noises from outside this area can still be heard from within the spell’s radius. If this spell is cast directly at a creature, the target must make a saving throw versus spell or become the center point of the silence zone for the duration, even if moving away. If the targeted creature makes the saving throw, the spell immediately takes effect in the surrounding area instead.
Sleep: Within 240 feet, up to 2d8 Hit Dice/levels of targets with each 4 Hit Dice or less fall unconscious. (Ignore pluses on Hit Dice; treat “2d8+2” as two Hit Dice). This spell can instead target one creature of 4d#+1 Hit Dice. For mixed groups, lower hit die/level targets are affected before higher hit die/level targets. Any targets with more than 4d#+1 Hit Dice (or of 5th level or higher), along with all undead creatures, are immune to this spell. Any sleeping creature may be awakened by force (such as a slap). A sleeping creature may be killed (regardless of its hit points) with a single blow from any edged weapon.
Sticks to Snakes: You transform 2d8 sticks within 120 feet into snakes that obey your commands (Snakes: AC 6, HD 1, 4 hit points, MV 90 ft. (swim 30 ft.), one bite attack per turn for 1d4 damage, Save as Fighter Level 1, Morale 7, Alignment neutral). There is a 50% chance the transformed snakes will be venomous, forcing those bitten to make a saving throw versus poison or die. Each snake reverts into a stick after one hour or immediately when its hit points are reduced to 0.
Striking: (I recall from the arcade game) For 10 minutes, one normal weapon within 30 feet becomes enchanted to harm creatures only hit by magical weapons. The weapon also adds +1d6 extra damage to hits against any opponent, but the spell has no effect on an attacker’s “to hit” roll.

Other B/X type rules

1 round = 10 seconds
B/X Moldvay/Cook says: Treasure, and this is in regards to the magic item known as Scrolls. Here a spell casting character can cast a spell without memorizing it and can also be of a spell level beyond their current ability. The magic-user/elf classes are restricted by needing to cast Read Magic on the scroll in order to understand it so that it may be used later.

Opt out of Firefox AI stuff ~Dec 2025, ~Jan 2026

https://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-and-remove-all-ai-features-in-mozilla-firefox/

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

DCC is wordy. The pros and cons. Room descriptions and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XI8Cfs-aU&t=305s

Comments he points out r good food for thought.

Personally, I loved the two DCC modules we did… but the kid did have to skip a ton of detail with the NPCs when he was the DM. I also had to read Sailors’ like 3 timew, which is a lot. And did have trouble finding info. But part of me likes the old style look without blocks and super highlights. But logically I love bolded and blocked out stuff to find it fast.

1e adnd, orcs n goblins were LE; movement and combat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF-3OMTFL2U&t=301s

Yt guy does 1e a lot. Australian? Comments about CE vs. LE.

I forgot goblins and orcs were LE in the old Monster Manual. Why did they change that? Maybe because wanted higher damage. Or did the LOTR movie do it for 3e or something (nope, years don’t match up)? Or maybe 2e did it? Nope, still LE. https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Orc_(Creature)

So I guess it was 3e for probably tactical reasons and variety reasons. As in

Goblins CE

Kobolds LE

Hobgoblins LE

Orcs CE

But gnolls and ogres stayed CE the whole time, right? In which case… no clue. Maybe they were always pretty chaotic anyway.

Oh, forgot forgot, in OD&D, chaotic mostly. B/X was chaotic eh?

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/172267/when-were-orcs-changed-from-lawful-evil-as-in-add-2e-to-chaotic-evil-as-in-d

In the beginning, Orcs were either Chaotic or Neutral. (Men and Magic, page 9, 1974). (In contrast, Goblins were only Chaotic, Men could be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic).

This was before the two-axis model, which was first seen in Strategic Review #6 (page 4, Feb 1976), and that placed Orcs in Chaotic Evil on the grid. The Holmes 1977 Basic D&D had them on the grid there as well.

They were listed as Lawful Evil in AD&D 1e, and remained that way for AD&D 2e.

In B/X and BECMI (Molday/Mentzer/Et al). which were printed after AD&D 1e was published, orcs are listed as Chaotic (in the red Basic box, DM Guide, page 35).

Startplaying [dot]com - online TTRPG games you can jump into

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceeMVJuQ0I&t=206s

Startplaying[dot]game or something, not .com actually.

Around halfway

$ but can play online quick. Many many versions of dnd type games.

UPDATE:

Some are one-shots apparently. I saw the new B/X only guy doing $10 one shots at decent times. That seems fine, I don't see how you'd get overcharged.
If you sign up for a long term thing, sounds like you just get auto-charged over and over maybe 15+ times... and no real way to undo it without relying on somebody else to unsign you up. Hard to trust that.

But a lot of ppl use it, so maybe there is a way to feel OK about it. Need to research more.

***ONLY 5 star reviews allowed. LOL.
TIP BEGGING, great.
Hidden service charge fees per session.
They have a secret back-end "three strike" rule with a totally opaque appeals process
you're signing up for a subscription service
Their online moderation is ruthless. They police and scrub social media and discord for negative feedback
yt link "You should give it a go, it might take a while to get off the ground as a GM, but I have run some of the most satisfying campaigns I have ever run on this platform. Having financially committed players really makes a difference. They REALLY want a great game."

Reviews from 4 yrs ago on Reddit:

I just played my first session on there last Sat. and have my second in 15 mins. Zero complaints, definitely recommend checking it out. I've been wanting to explore some non-D&D systems and this turned out to be a great way to find a decent/experienced GM.

Actual CRITICAL REVIEW here. 2yrs ago, so it's still going, but apparently you gotta watch out for BS.

If it makes the game better, I am happy to pay. To start out, I wanted to pay a highly-reviewed GM. That's harder to do than I thought! Many highly-rated people with great reviews don't list games. I see that there are highly-rated GM accounts where where you try to join their game, but the listing says the GM will actually be someone else. "(So-and-so) will run this game and he has my full confidence." Okay, but that means the good reviews were for some other GM? So what is the point of having a platform and a review system? Seems pretty sketchy!

ANSWERS:

No idea what's happening here.

the listing says the GM will actually be someone else

This feels like a violation of the terms of service. Might be worth emailing SPG directly.

Many highly-rated people with great reviews don't list games

Experienced pro GMs tend to build a pool of players on SPG, then move their group off of SPG. The GM collects payment directly from the players. SPG takes a service fee, so doing this means more revenue for the GM.
If you see a GM you like just message them directly. Ask what they got going on and if they have anything coming up. Personally, I love it when players message me. It lets me tailor my next campaign to their specific interest.

Regarding the disappearing listings, games drop out of the search 4 hours ahead of the listed time and then completely at 1 hour iirc. This prevents last minute joins and other stuff that can make onboarding players kind of stressful.
With the highly reviewed folks, it doesn't show full tables so they may be at max. In terms of someone else running a game, this is a growing occurrence where folks are operating as a collective or co-GM setup, I'm friends with a duo like that where they share the workload.

ONESHOTS:

One shots are tricky for some reason. The ones that seem to succeed are either offered for free or the GM has cultivated a following. People I guess are just not as into them. With that being said, I have played several one shots on that platform so it does happen.

Your best bet at joining a one shot is to go in with a friend. One shots are much more likely to actually run if there are two or more seats filled, and they do fill up pretty quickly once you've got those two starter seats filled.

Health - 10 minute intense exercise (could be) beating up on cancer

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/10-minutes-of-intensive-workout-can-trigger-powerful-anti-cancer-effects/

Evidence is pretty good. And it sure can't hurt.

The Newcastle researchers found that exercise boosted the activity of genes that support mitochondrial energy metabolism, enabling cells to use oxygen more efficiently.
At the same time, genes linked to rapid cell growth were switched off, which could reduce the aggressiveness of cancer cells, and exercise-conditioned blood promoted DNA repair, activating a key repair gene called PNKP.
The study involved 30 volunteers, male and female aged 50–78, all overweight or obese (a risk factor of cancer) but otherwise healthy.
After completing a short, intense cycling test lasting approximately 10 minutes, researchers collected blood samples and analysed 249 proteins. As many as 13 proteins increased after exercise, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), which helps repair the DNA of damaged cells.
“These results suggest that exercise doesn’t just benefit healthy tissues, it may also create a more hostile environment for cancer cells to grow,” said Dr. Orange, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist at The Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
“Even a single workout can make a difference. One bout of exercise, lasting just 10 minutes, sends powerful signals to the body.”

Words: Doom meant Judgement or Law in Old English

So Doom meant Judgement or Law in Old English. That's just kind of weird, don't you think? Word meanings change all the time, but associating law with our current purely negative meaning of doom is pretty sad. Or maybe in the old days, the only time you dealt with a law is when it was coming for you. Still, kinda sad.

Monday, January 12, 2026

Spotify - get better randomization

MORE RANDOM. Gonna try this:

Open Spotify on a real PC
Cntrl+A, drag them to a new playlist.
Put that playlist "through a shuffler". As in, some 3rd party tool somehow. I used https://spotifyshuffler.com , and it supposedly let's you sort of kill your account on their website if you want. I might.

Works, after a couple of tries.
WELL I cant find a way to "delete my account". It just auto logs in after the first time you log into spotify and give it access to ALL YOUR INFO. Annoying. How do I undo this now, to be safe?

FAQ says:

How can I close my account?

The shuffler only ever has temporary access to the Spotify account. Each time you return to the site access is requested again [[[this is misleading the way he words it]]]. If you'd like to remove the access you can do so via the following link: https://www.spotify.com/uk/account/apps/

Or more like https://www.spotify.com/us/account/apps/

Resave new playlists... so you can see it on your phone

Obviously this is one point in time, and you'll have to keep redoing this to get

new random orders of songs
and even just new "faves" that you add each week. Boo.

Super inconvenient. And the fkers at spotify say they'll never give true random. I see a bunch of websites for shuffling, but surely that is for PC only. UPDATE: Yeah, you have to install the "windows app" and then do it there. Then u see on phone too, after.

Media Quality -

I'm turning it from "auto" to HIGH. Tempting to go Lossless (aka actual super high) but,... cellular sucks so maybe not.

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Monty Haul Origins, Gygax. Plus Holmes info not common

New to me YTer: On Holmes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m2B8Pnyz1tc&pp=0gcJCU0KAYcqIYzv

Monty Haul, re: Gygax, re: the Monty Haul style is fun: https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-origin-of-monty-haul.666872/

James (Jim) Ward says he still writes modules and puts a lot of treasure in there, but a lot of folks complain. He says it is fun, just scale up difficulty of encounters.