Ok so this is my first time running a campaign. I didn’t know how to write one but really wanted to learn to DM, so I picked Balder’s Gate from 5E to run. First session and it’s the run of the mill go to tavern find important person.
Player in question, now dubbed ‘Stabby’ is with our group. First time as a player, and in a group of 6 players total(yeah it’s big). They’re waiting to play a game of Balder’s bones, a dice gamble game from the campaign, and he gets impatient that the table is full. I tell him he needs to wait and says “Ok, I stab one of them and take his seat.”
So at this point I kinda stop and the rest of my players are like wtf you can’t just do that. Since this was his first ever session and he prob doesn’t understand in game consequences yet I let him off the hook and said ‘Ok I’m gonna let you take that back this time because if you do that the whole tavern will turn against you.’
He gets huffy and says fine. Later on they’re at a small potion shop run by a small old man. The old man tells Stabby he can’t go lower on the price because his shop is failing and he needs the money. Check is an 18, and he’s told the man is not lying. Stabby says “Ok but I don’t wanna pay so give me the potion or I stab you with my trident.” Intimidation check is high(at disadvantage cause of the way he spoke the line) and I’m kinda fed up with Stabby so I make up 7 large, burly sons of the shop owner coming out after hearing the threat and successfully deter Stabby after the party says they won’t back up his actions.
Later on in the campaign they get to a dungeon and there are several prisoners that are trapped in cages. Stabby tries to get info out of them and they don’t have it. Again he threatens them with his stupid trident. So the rest of the party defends the prisoners and lets them go, and I just got so fed up I had one of the prisoners cast a special curse on the trident. The wizard identified this curse to be one that causes the wielder to become attached to the item and be unable to let it go, and that any attacks made not through self defense with it would be at disadvantage and take away one hit point. He had to go through a real tough process to get it uncursed and left after quote ‘this game is too boring’.
Edit: Thanks guys! I appreciate your comments and critiques on my campaign and DM-ing. I didn’t want to have my players leave cause I’m a bad DM or unfair. I will try and talk to Stabby again and see if we can work things out and he can come back. Also, I’m a girl 😅
Edit 2: I clarified I’m a girl because the comments were referring to me as ‘he’
Edit 3: Per a lot of requests in my DM’s, I will have an update post if I remember. If it turns out well I’ll update this post but if it goes poorly I’ll link this one and make a new one

https://imgur.com/a/OlvxIRd
These are the odds given to a friend for a dice gambling game. The number stated needs to be rolled a number of times and the first count to hit the total wins. 12 needs to be rolled 3 times before others reach the finish, 11 needs to be rolled 4 times, 4 needs to be rolled 4 times, etc.
I'm trying to figure out how to calculate these odds properly but not sure how to do it and calculate each possible scenario against the likelihood of other scenarios happening first. Any help on this? I have a spreadsheet set up but can't seem to get the last step.

Dice games are one of the simplest and purest casino games online today. There are thousands of different dice games available to play online, but recently dice games with bitcoin are getting very popular. Bitcoin dice is called the only “provably fair” game.
Unlike other dice sites, platforms that offer Bitcoin or crypto dice don’t force players to trust the casino itself. Instead, Bitcoin dice runs on a transparent blockchain system that allows players to independently verify that the games they play are far, without stacked odds. What is Bitcoin Dice?
Dice gambling games all follow the same fundamental process, but there are key two differences between Bitcoin dice and traditional dice game that make it highly popular with gamers. Firstly, Bitcoin dice is provably fair. Bitcoin dice game can be checked by players themselves to ensure that it’s fair and free from any odds tampering — the odds you see are what the odds you play. Secondly, Bitcoin dice allows players to gamble Bitcoin. This provides players with a massive advantage — casino players are normally required to rely on casino platforms to release their withdrawals and pay out their winnings. Bitcoin dice, however, allows players to withdraw their winnings in Bitcoin at any time. Bitcoin withdrawal transactions typically take less than one hour to complete, providing players with the ability to access their winnings much faster than any other platform.
How to play Bitcoin Dice?
Playing Bitcoin dice is extremely simple, and is comparable to many other simple BTC gambling games. In a dice Bitcoin game, players choose a number between 1 and 100 and place a wager on whether a dice roll between the same numbers will roll above or below that number — it’s that simple. Betting that a dice roll will result in a number lower than 75, for example, is the same as betting that the roll will land over 25. Most Bitcoin dice game odds are transparent, with a 1% house edge. The basic steps of playing Bitcoin dice are:

1. Choose a number that you predict the dice roll will land over or under and place a wager
2. Roll the dice!

Bitcoin Dice Tips & Examples:
There are a number of tips and tricks you can use to increase the chances of winning big on Bitcoin dice:

• Consider playing with a dice strategy, such as the Martingale strategy
• When you play dice game, use different strategies with Autobet. For example: Roll under 48, set initial bet — 10 satoshi and increase bet amount by 300%. When you play dice, change this percentage to 45% and higher to test different ways. Some of the ways might work.
• Slowly increase your bet amount when you’re on a winning streak — don’t get too hasty!
• Bank half of your winnings to ensure a profit when you’re on a roll.
• Consider playing on a platform that provides benefits, such as a Bitcoin faucet. Bitcoin faucet is free bitcoin, which you can get after a certain amount of time, like one hour. Using free bitcoin is a good motivation and chance to win more free bitcoin.

What is common between bitcoin dice & wagering contest?
Dice platforms usually offer dice wagering contest. It’s a competition between crypto players in all over the world. Players have to wager in the dice gmae during a certain amount of time. Players who wager the most during that time, will get nice prizes. Especially, if you play dice game with bitcoin or crypto, it gives huge inspiration.
Everyone is welcome to try bitcoin dice game with faucet in TrustDice platform — one of the popular dice game in crypto community. It’s transparent and provably fair, offers free faucet. Just try out TrustDice, if you’re interested in the topic. _______________________________________________________________ Article was supported by TrustDice game! To try Bitcoin dice game: LINK

This is my first draft of a simple dice gambling game - which itself is a small part of a dice/card gambling game I play with friends.
​
I've been learning Python for a short while and I'm using this project as a way to apply some of the things I've learned in tutorials.
​
I still have to add the ability to keep track of the winnings/losses for each player, as well as eventually adding in the option to play with up to 3 players.
​
Code can be found here:
https://github.com/Familiar-Fez/Dice-Game
​
Any feedback would be appreciated.

For those who don't know Etheroll is the first dice gambling game on Ethereum. It works similarly to those dice games seen in BTC (PrimeDice, SatoshiDice...), but has the advantage of being totally trustworthy since ETH coins don't need to be deposited into the website or withdrawn, as it uses smart-contracts. Random numbers used by the game also come from Oraclize, a third party also based on the Ethereum network. It has a 1 % house edge, which is quite low.
Be sure to use Mist browser (recommended) and be connected to the Ethereum main network to play! https://etheroll.com

As-of-yet unnamed game (I was thinking of something that combined Craps and Blackjack, maybe Crabjack, but I am open to suggestions).

• Player makes their bet (within house minimum and/or limit)
• Player gets 5 dice: d12, d10, d8, d6, and a d4
• Player picks which die to roll. Once a die is rolled, it is used up and cannot be re-rolled
• Player wins if their total of all rolled dice so far is exactly 7 or 11
• Player loses if they run out of dice (without hitting 7 or 11) or reach a total 12 or higher
• Keep rolling until you win or lose
• House pays 2x the bet on a win, or 3x if the player rolled 4 dice, or 5x if the player rolled all five dice. Payout includes the amount bet, so the game is normally "Double or nothing", with a chance at a higher payout if you use 4 or 5 dice.

I haven't crunched a purely optimal strategy, but with a decent strategy and a Monte Carlo simulation, the house pays out about 90%, which seems about right. There might be an optimal strategy that can get above 100%, in which case the payouts might need adjusting.
edit: Found a better strategy, adjusted the multiplier to bring it down. It's now at just under 100% payout.
edit2: I wrote a program to calculate optimal strategies, so now I've got the payouts with perfect play. Updated info on my blog: https://400goblins.blogspot.com/2017/01/crabjack-polyhedral-dice-gambling-game.html

I'm offering 10,000 NYAN bounties for anyone who creates a working nyan dice/gambling game site.
Also, anyone who can make a working NYAN marketplace to trade NYAN for goods will get 20,000 NYAN!

I have a big harvest festival coming up for my players this weekend. I've been looking up ideas on here etc.
Any ideas for more games? Specifically team based ones.
Tug of War Archery/Knife Throwing Contests Rock Walls Rock Throwing Log Throwing Arm Wrestling Dice gambling games Lying Games Shell Games Pie Eating Contest

Introduction
I am a senior technology analyst at a large firm in Toronto. I have been in the Information Technology field now for 31 years. I have worked with everything from mainframes to desktops. I am currently responsible for our network infrastructure, routers, switches, etc. I am a project manager and a technical analyst. Those are my two main skill sets.
Server Specifications
Server is owned by me and currently resides at a peer1 datacenter. I have spun up a virtual machine to run the Lisk blockchain and be a delegate. This server will run 24/7 and I will never shut it down. The specs are: 8 processor cores 16 Gb of memory 500 Gb of hard disk space VPS on a 1Gbit internet connection.
Current Contributions or Planned Contributions to the Lisk Ecosystem
I work with 7 developers whom I have been preaching to about cryptocurrency. Three of them have agreed to help me develop dapps on the lisk blockchain. Currently in the works we have two free dapps that we will be releasing along with source. These first two are a learning project for our team, once they are complete and released we will start work on our primary project, which will be ICO driven. I don’t want to release any details of that project as there are many copy-cats in crypto that would try and make money off our hard work. The first two dapps that should be released in Q1 of next year are a dice/gambling game and a lottery app. There is talk about incorporating roulette and blackjack into the gambling game but that may take too long.
Ending Statement
Voting for us will ensure that downward price pressure will not come from this delegate, we plan on holding all of the Lisk that our delegate generates. We also will be developing dapps on the Lisk chain. This is what we need for the price of Lisk to rise. Voting for us will help increase the price of Lisk and generate adoption and interest in this chain with our dapps.
Thank you for taking the time to read our proposal and thank you for your consideration.
Contact Details
E-Mail: [email protected] GitHub: tbd Reddit: MisO6t9 BitcoinTalk.org: MisO69 Twitter: @MisO6T9 LinkedIn: n/a DELEGATE NAME: miso69

Does anyone know any hosted dice gambling games which run on testnet? Alternatively, does PrimeDice have a testnet version?
Thanks in advance.

I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

https://twitter.com/k3soju/status/1358414142021992448?s=19
Game state of TFT The games you lose feel so frustrating because too many factors are out of your control
By listing things here and offering some insight, I hope they get resolved but also, I want to emit positive energy and focus on improving and having fun on stream instead of complaining. (since I’ve already complained here)

1. Chosen Mechanic
2. Lucky Lanterns
3. Inflexible item holders and power of synergies

1. The fact that you can instantly find a 2 star unit with extra stats and an extra tag, it’s already impossible to balance at a competitive level but taking a look at the early game can alleviate some of the frustration.
Right now, you’re guaranteed a chosen by 2-2 and guaranteed 3 Chosen’s by the end of stage 2. The problem is that a chosen gives too much direction. For example, if someone were to find one of the reroll chosens such as nasus, yasuo, fiora, nidalee etc, they could have perfect info on what units to hold and start making eco and the game essentially plays itself until 3-2 where you might have to pivot if contested or didn’t hit enough of the unit you’re trying to reroll.
However, let’s assume you didn’t find a chosen until 2-1 so you pre-level for the 40% 2 star premium chosen and you don’t hit on 2-1 either so next turn you’re going to find a chosen. From this point, lets say you hit cultist elise or cultist tf. If you don’t have a cultist, chances are you shouldn’t pick this up, sac until carousel and stabilize with the 1 of the 2 remaining chosen. However, if you found cultist TF or cultist elise, you would almost instantly buy it if it were stage 1 cause you get perfect direction on what to hold and what to sell for eco.
Furthermore, lets say you hit one of the reroll chosens after pre-leveling to 4, it’s so awkward to play because you’re already down 4 gold so slowrolling above 50 won’t happen until 3-2/3-3 most of the time and also you’re missing two level 4 shops.
Now, lets say you hit one of the two cost chosen’s, either you hit a chosen that fits the units you gambled to hold and you’re guaranteed top 4 or you hit a chosen that’s too strong to pass up on given your items and you’re praying that the rest of your shops will accommodate the chosen you picked up or your entirety of stage 2-3 is doomed.
Lets say you don’t pick up the chosen here and the next chosen you find is after carousel. Now, you’re even more limited on chosen’s because on level 5, any of the 1 cost reroll chosens are unrerollable and therefore a lot less premium and almost all of the 1 cost chosens are outscaled except for maybe Nidalee.
Furthermore, say you’re playing warlord vanguard, sharpshooter opener (Garen + Warlord + Vanguard + Nidalee + SS) and you find a chosen cultist pyke on 2-5. Can you even buy this? Probably not. Would you buy this prior to 2-5. without a doubt.
Say I’m playing around cultist keeper opener with (Elise + keeper + 2 cultists + supporting unit for cultist) and I find a vanguard garen/nautilus… At this point you’re just banking your last chosen isn’t a fiora or game is doomed since you most likely have to roll on 3-2 for a specific chosen that can fit your comp…
The examples can go infinite but the point I’m getting at is that chosens give too much direction and as the game goes later, the chosens that you can buy are limited so players that hit a chosen early are in just a much better spot without even looking at units held/units sold for eco…
You can almost always predict who is going top 2 at 3-5 based on “just hitting a chosen” Warlord jarvan with a katarina on stage 2? That’s a guaranteed top 2, got outplayed I guess. Zed chosen with RFC… nice.
2. Lantern items feel AWFUL to play against.
Target dummy strong against duelist, asol, aatrox. Loaded dice beyond broken if you’re playing a reroll comp. Reforger, remover and item(s) benefit win streakers since their board can hold items more readily.
I will admit that it’s balanced because over 100 games, you will be playing duelist, asol, aatrox, reroll or winstreaking but isn’t chosen mechanic as well? What I’m saying is that it just feels awful when you’re playing brawlers / nasus early game and the lobby gets dropped a belt or a chain and anyone who can make sunfire gets a free win against you. You’re playing mage a sol, and entire lobby gets 2 bows on 4-6 for their olaf/samira/kayle and you don’t have a single item holder. (you don’t play rakan unless you have elder sol)
If you’re playing a fast 8 comp and lobby strength is accelerated, you probably have to roll on 7 but rolling on 7 feels like lottery half the time since sometimes your board is established around your chosen.
3. Playing fast 8 comps, carries in set 4.5 use a specific set of items and synergies. Without them, the strength of the unit plummets drastically. The only carry that is flexible in items is Kayle because she does so well with aura items but can also use every stat in the game. Defensive, AS, AP.
Champions like talon who needs IE, (real carry is morgana with morello), olaf who need runaans feels so frustrating to play… You slam items such as runaans/IE mid game on tristana/shyvana to win streak / save hp and on stage 5 (level 8), if you don’t hit olaf/talon, you’re essentially just going to be bleeding out the rest of your hp for an inevitable 6th. You can top 4 if you have the hp from early and that way you bleed out slower than the rest of the low rollers. The skill expression does come from salvaging a 5th that would usually be an 8th by trying to play what you’re given on stage 5 but a game that’s just doomed to 4th at best?
Furthermore, have you seen Olaf without runaans and slayer? The unit feels like a 2 cost. Have you seen ashe without hunter or elderwood? The unit feels like a 4 cost.
Olaf needs specific items. Ashe wants 2 offensive items and a defensive item. Certain combinations are stronger than others, but the unit doesn’t feel as hopeless as Olaf without runaans. I think part of it is the champions identity and strength come from the synergy and not the actual unit.
Asol – good spot, can use aura items and do well with all combos of AP Kayle – good spot, can use aura items and do well without RFC Morgana – ok spot, has always been much stronger with morello but shes not a solo carry anyway and she does okay with leftover items Olaf – runaans Talon – ie Samira – 5 cost and needs DB at 1 star
Closing notes…
So when people complain about reroll comps, they’ve always been in the meta, but now they’re just rewarded more for rerolling because of the chosen mechanic giving direction and lanterns favoring strong boards and direction on top…

1. Deal with chosen odds early but it might make reroll comps even stronger
2. w/e, pray don’t low roll
3. Buff units, take away from synergy (add creativity mid game as well)

“YOU’RE SO PICKY WITH CHOSEN!!!!!!” gl top 4ing in a top 20 tournament with your off tempo keeper elise, let alone qualifying for the tournament in the first place ^{-^}

• soju

Full disclosure, I'm stealing this idea from kawaiisocks based on this comment and I think it warrants discussion as a topic.
4x games, for those who don't know, are large scale strategy games that see players (typically) managing an empire and engaging in war, diplomacy, trade, exploration, and resource exploitation to drive economies and military engines. The namesake is originally short for "EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate" but they're also often known as grand strategy games.
The most common examples are the Civilization series as well as many of Paradox's games (Stellaris, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis) - at least among video games.
I personally like these types of games, to a point, I always get very excited to play them and then after a couple hours come to the unfortunate conclusion that I don't know what I'm doing anymore. My play quickly starts to lack intentionality outside of a vague attempt to expand. Intentionality is essentially informed decision making, allowing you to decide based on intent rather than whim, randomness, or make decisions that go against your intent due to a lack of information.
Decisions in these games are important, but too often I find myself defaulting to a non-decision because the consequences are unclear and difficult to comprehend. Cause and effect is very difficult to parse without intimate game knowledge, and suboptimal decisions seem to not matter much until it's too late.
I'm sure many have similar experiences. A "I had no idea this was going to be a problem 30 turns ago," and not because like someone declared a surprise war on you - simple stuff that really should be predictable but aren't because our minds become fatigued by an overload of information - no matter how many explanations and tooltips the games offer. And hell, some mechanics are straight up hidden. The games rely on computers to do hundreds of different calculations with many diverse and large numbers that are no problem for computers, but my feeble human mind can't wrap itself around them all. There are too many things, how can anyone fully comprehend the consequences of their or their opponent's actions in any given game? This causes player actions, aside from a few very dedicated fans, to lack intentionality.
Board games do not have this problem because they cannot rely on computers as administrators, everything must be comprehensible to the players or else the game does not work
This initially comes across as a major limitation, but I find it incredibly liberating at the same time. It means designers have to make a game that players need to understand how each mechanic works in its entirety and regularly keep in mind. This means a ton of the fat is cut and numbers and admin is kept manageable (ideally, some still fail at this).
Twilight Imperium is one of the largest board games out there. It clocks in at around an 8-12 hour playtime. Victory is decided one way: Who gets to 10 (or 14) points first. You can at most get one to three points in a single turn, with the largest point gains being open knowledge. Despite its massive size, it is incredibly slim compared to most video game 4x games.
Twilight Imperium is an epic space opera about politics, trade, and conquest. It features dozens of races with unique playstyles - it is has a rulebook with some 100 different items. People start in a home system and expand out, trying to remain King of the Hill to gain points (just one method of several) in a space that's too small, yet war is too costly, leaving players in an uneven tension trying to control as much space as possible without becoming weak. It's massive, yet even on a first playthrough - though there is a significant learning curve - players can act with intentionality. It's not because the game is simple, it's not, but it is manageable and comprehensible.
In Civ VI I couldn't tell you how to get to certain techs, I'd have to consult the tech tree which I can never memorize. It takes many turns to get there, how many? Don't know. Based on what? Science buildings. How many? Don't know. Depends on how many cities and other techs I have. And if I get inspirations for others.
In TI4 - how do I get the top of the line red tech? Have three other red techs or (there's four total) or a combination of that and one or more of the planets with red tech bonuses. That's it - easy to plan for, if I want something, I know how to get it. When do I get that tech? Well, if I can get a "gain technology" action off (which happens regularly, but has costs associated) I can get one tech - so if I beeline it for that red tech, I can get there in like four rounds. Or - if I grab a red tech planet, three rounds! Ah, and the war sun requires three red, one green, one yellow - so if I really try I can unlock this super powerful unit within six rounds and be a menace, potentially.
Now that's not a great strategy, most of the time war suns aren't bothered with because the cost is high - but they do offer a real clear advantage. The important thing I'm trying to show here is that mentally calculating a plan is relatively easy. Plans rarely hold together with the changing landscape, but you can make them, you can act with intent - you can say "I want this, this is cool" and visualize the path to it. Where there is uncertainty is combat, and that uncertainty is due to the nature of dice rolls being unpredictable - but this is to the game's benefit. The game's deliberate with its uncertainty, allowing the possibility for unexpected defeats and victories, making the decision to initiate a conflict a known gamble.
What's also uncertain is how the other players will act and what you can or cannot convince them of. Everyone is different, but figuring it out requires engaging with the players. This is great! This is what you play a social game for after all. You're not here to try to figure out how some obtuse AI calculates their decisions, you're seeing if your friend is going to hold a grudge over that last battle. You can sort of do this with video games, but I find most 4x games deemphasize this. Board games are, by nature, more open with information - and they typically play into this. Again, it allows one to act with intentionality - I might not be aware of what will happen, but I can make educated predictions and play around that possibility space. There's only a few spaces I have to worry about, not literally hundreds of tiles with fog of war over them.
TL;DR: Board games are actually mentally manageable by nature, or at least are intended to be. Video games have gotten away with letting their mechanics and admin bloat to a degree where grand strategy and 4x games require either expertise or being okay with not making informed decisions most of the time. And I don't believe this is to the benefit of these 4x games, I believe it makes them bloated and frustrating once the novelty wears off and you're tasked with dozens of fiddly mechanics that the game doesn't even expect you to know, but are impactful.
Sorry about the rambling. This could absolutely be better organized. But eh.

So as many people might know, one of the main complaints about martial characters vs spellcasting characters is an inability to deal with many combatants at once. Simply put, with the exception of a single subclass, all martial classes lack the capacity to attack more than 4 or 5 enemies a turn, even if they are at 20th level.
One could make the argument that a martial character's specialty should be in single target damage over AOE damage with the spellcasters taking over that portion of the game and being allowed to shine there. It's not a bad idea, and I see where they're coming from. However, the problem is that this logic is only applied one way.
Because spellcasters are more than capable of dealing high amounts of single target damage. Admittedly, it costs them more in the way of spell slots, but the point is that they have the luxury of choice. They can choose between single target, AOE, or utility. This is a choice that martial characters do not have. They are restricted to single target attacks or ineffective distribution of extra attacks. All martial characters, except for one subclass: the Hunter Conclave of Rangers.
At 11th level, Hunters gain access to the Multiattack class feature, which as an Action allows them to make a Whirlwind Attack:

Whirlwind Attack. You can use your action to make melee attacks against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target.

or a Volley attack:

Volley. You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon’s range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.

I think that every martial character should have been given some kind of feature that was similar to these, if not these exact same features. Something that requires a full Action to use in exchange for the opportunity to hit a larger number of targets. Back in the playtest packets for 5th edition, it was actually exactly like this. There was no Extra Attack feature for martial characters, only an increasing number of weapon damage dice (similar to how the Rogue is currently designed). And instead of just the Battlemaster Fighter having Superiority Dice, all martial characters had them. Whirlwind Attack was one of the maneuvers available for choice.
But in the current iteration of the game would it actually be a problem to give characters this class feature? I don't think it would be. From a player choice standpoint, Whirlwind Attack is and would be a mechanic used to gamble on high risk/high reward situations. The ability to hit up to 7 creatures at once (assuming it is the player character who is walking into the enemy and not the enemy surrounding them) balanced out by the possibility of getting beat on by 7 creatures at once. Volley is a safer feature, but still one that expends resources at an alarmingly fast rate. A quiver only holds 20 arrows after all.
From a balance perspective, the AOE damage of a character increases, but not by much. 8 creatures is the maximum a player character could possibly hit with Whirlwind Attack, but with the way that creatures scatter around a battlefield, you're most likely to be hitting just 3 or 4 creatures at a time. And you'd be dealing what? Anywhere between 1d4+modifier to 2d6/1d12+modifier per creature at most. Barely any more than a standard Scorching Ray spell. Certainly miles less than the 8d6 per creature of a Fireball.
There's a few extra little interaction mechanics to consider, such as a Paladin's Smite which at adds 1d8 radiant damage to all weapon attacks at 11th level or the Barbarian's extra rage damage, but overall, I don't think it would break any games. I suppose a Paladin could use his full Divine Smite on every creature he hits for a huge damage increase or a Monk could use Stunning Strike on every one for crowd control, but in both cases it would require an extreme expenditure of resources from them and thus balancing it out. Again, still less damage and a greater cost than using a single 3rd level Fireball.
The most important thing would be that AOE abilities like this would increase a martial character's options. If their options are only to hit things or not to hit things, they should at least be given different ways to hit things.

3rd day of the 1st moon
A party hosted by Lord Regent Richard Staedmon was simply something you could not miss if you were of the nobility. Hosted at a rather lavish manse past the Hook there were a multitude of socialites pouring past the gate protecting the building. The guardsmen wore surcoats of red and white and had long axes and short swords. Underneath was mail and leather, though a few knights belonging to the Staedmon retinue loitered around with plate armor and their bastard swords.
Inside was a realm of otherworldly delights. Well dressed servants carried trays of cheeses and meats from guest to guest. Others had plates of wine to be handed out. Musicians were playing their instruments while singers were belting out famous songs from across Westeros. The noise of the gathered nobles made it difficult to hear the music itself. In one of the parts of the manse was the gambling corner, the finest place in the realm for the nobility to make their bets. From future tournament bets to dice games and even three or two sided tiles.
Compared to the places where peasants gambled, it was heaven. Servants would bring the gambling nobles food and drink while each game was monitored by a man loyal to the Lord Regent. No cheating would be permitted by the guests. The establishment was nothing if not reputable.
The party's most gracious host was absent for the moment. In the meanwhile there were a myriad of lesser stewards to govern the flowing party. Admitting new guests or denying entrance to others. There was a severe lack of Dornish guests, though if they were important enough they might have been let in.
A large staircase led to the second floor, which was a simple row of doors that led to private rooms, with a simple railing looking down. Several guardsmen with crossbows watched from their perches above. Presumably the rooms were for the family of the Regent lord, as well as for any special guests that he might have business with.
Beneath the rooms was another door leading to a private backroom. It was usually inhabited by the personal guests of Marya Staedmon, the Lord Regents youngest sister who had a voracious appetite for men.
The back door in that room opened to reveal Lord Richard Staedmon, Lord of Broad Arch and one of the Regent Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. He had a couple of ledgers in his arms. A closer look might have shown a few specks of blood on his gloves, but those were removed and tossed into the small fire that was roaring nearby.
"Huhhhhom" he said. "Two at once this time?" Richard didn't sound surprised. His younger sister had earned a reputation for her sexual exploits. So long as she did not harm his own powerbase he allowed her to do as she pleased. But if he even felt for a second she might damage his position, he'd take care of her. It would be the Silent Sisters for her.
He would deal with all of his enemies, no matter if they were family or not.
Richard was wearing a plain tunic of red under a white doublet with cuffs that were speckled with fake blood drops. Little heart brooches kept his cloak of black satin with gold trimming.
The Lord of Broad Arch moved past his sister and entered the party. At once there was an acknowledgement of his presence. A series of "My lords!" went out as he cheerfully moved past his guests to reach the staircase to the second floor. Once there, he entered his office to deposit the ledgers. All eyes turned towards the door. A small cheer went out when he came back.
"Ah-hum" he said with a slight cough. The well mannered lord garnered the attention of his guests and then spoke. "My friends! Welcome. Please, enjoy yourselves. Drink and eat your fill! Enjoy yourselves at the tables! Bet to your heart's content. My gift to you! Know that I, Lord Richard Staedmon, will fight on this regency council to ensure the economic recovery of our realm! To my fellow lords, I promise to fight for the taxes of the realm to be lowered, while my dear merchant friends will be glad to know that I will seek to have their venture investments protected. And I will seek to have the crown invest in protection for your trade vessels in these troubled times! Long live the King!"
Several cheers went out as Lord Staedmon smiled happily. Morons. Pieces of shit. You offer them a simple little treat and they cheer your name. And then they'll move on to the next attraction.
He had use for fawning sycophants, but ideally he wished these pathetic pieces of trash would just disappear. His perfect world didn't have room for them. He grit his teeth and walked back to his office to let his guests drink, eat and gamble the night away.
"How cute they are sometimes. Drinking and eating from the palms of my hand. To think they would do such to someone without 'talent'..." he said with a resentful voice. His office was sparse, several chairs in various places. It wasn't very organized, his table a mess of papers ranging from economic predictions, budgetary proposals and the distribution of wages.
He wondered if any lords would want an audience, as they always did. He supposed he should put his façade of friendliness back on if such a thing should occur.
"Hrrmmn" he muttered, quite cross. Some parchments had fallen from his hand. Leaning down he picked them back up. He grimaced and added them to the growing pile of disorganized parchments. The lord slid behind his desk and checked the burning candle to see if he needed another. Satisfied, he pulled several of his proposals from a pile and began reading over them.
He coughed lightly and spoke like he was at a council session. "My fellow regents. Today I will bring forth a proposal on the prospects of economic growth following the devastating war… No that's not right…." he grumbled as he cut himself off. Richard rubbed his forehead. He simply wasn't the fiery orator like Lord Locke was. Richard was confident in his own intelligence and ability to govern certainly, he just wasn't as apt with words compared to some of his peers.
At least I can read. Unlike that godsdamm peasant… The nerve… Maelor truly was scum… To appoint someone like him! he cursed silently, seething as he did so. "To think that someone that low.. Would rise along like someone like me!"
Richard looked down and saw he had crumpled his parchment. He exhaled to calm himself. "Now… I shouldn't get so worked up over this! It'll work itself out!" he reassured himself. "Now… where was I? Yes… My fellow regents. My proposal today will be on several ways to improve the state of our realms economy as well as aid in its recovery…."

What is this only a day between posts? it's a miracle. The sleep schedule has taken a hit for this one so I hope you enjoy it. Twoflower68 is trucking along trying to keep this all a lot less messy than the results of 3 AM writing by a goblin with a chaingun-typewriter normally would.
Anywho it's time we see how our impromptu boy band gets along and whether Sapphire has already been bored to death from sitting around. So let's get on with the show.
ko-fi for those feeling generous
Sapphire
First Previous Next
__________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 65: Uhm Who Is In Charge?
“I told you we should have brought someone who knew where we were going” Jarix protested as they flew along the forest's edge.
They had been at this for nearly an hour now and no sign of any dragonettes. Tom reckoned Jarix was fast even on the cruise Tom reckoned maybe 130 to 140 as they went along. Meaning they had likely covered over 80 kilometers already accounting for a bit of backtracking here and there. And yet they had found nothing.
“This doesn’t make sense, could they still be on the ground searching for those herb things?” Tom questioned.
“Look don’t ask any of us, we have no clue” Radexi defended.
“Let’s land for a bit before we get completely lost.”
“Okay then, go down low and circle back again, I’m used to navigating by ground, let’s see if we can find where we hunted those red deer.”
“Fine, at least that is more fun than this,” Jarix replied, clearly not very optimistic.
Radexi and Tom took a shoulder each as they sat peering out ahead trying to spot something.
It took a while but they finally came across a familiar-looking hilltop.
“There, left turn one eighth” They seriously needed to improve on this system.
“Left turn” Jarix replied, flying over the hilltop and sure enough there were the tracks left by his quadbike… why hadn’t they just followed those?
“Goddammit, I’m an idiot. We could just have followed those tracks”
“What why… what is that?” Jarix questioned.
“My quad bike, you’ll see soon enough those lead home.”
“You really aren't good at this are you?” Radexi added from behind.
“Yeah yeah, I can't fly that’s my excuse. Well, we are where we are supposed to now. So where are they?”
“I’m gonna get some altitude so they can see us.”
Jarix climbed up hard, he was surprisingly nimble for his size and even seemed to be able to match the dragonettes for climb-rate. He wasn’t even breathing hard from doing so either.
“Jarix targets two-thirds left. Is that them?” Radexi asked, pointing to the horizon. Tom strained to look. He did make out four dots on the horizon which seemed to be approaching. That was behind them though.
“Yep” came the reply from Jarix. “Turning to intercept” It took a few minutes for the range to close but eventually Tom could make them out as well.
As they reached each other the dragonettes turned to match Jarix's direction, setting down on his back. All seeming a little winded, especially Wiperna.
“Why didn’t you stop? We’ve been chasing for kilometers." Fengi questioned setting down.
“I didn’t see you” Tom replied. Zarko looked less than pleased.
“Who was rear lookout?” Radexi and Tom looked at each other. “For a teacher you sure suck at learning Tom and I expect better from you.” She went pointing at Radexi.
Wiperna was still wheezing trying to catch her breath clearly not used to this kind of flying.
“Whu… why are you so fast?”
“That is my job, who gave me such a kind compliment?” Jarix responded.
“Wiperna” She got out.
“Right, you’re the one whose fields I need to plow I think”
“This is a weird day” Wiperna went, giving up and just laying down.
“So you all look tired” Tom tried in as innocent a voice as he could manage.
“I’m not” Jackalope replied with her usual lack of tact standing proudly with of all things two jackalopes hanging over her shoulder. ‘touche’ Tom thought to himself.
“Well, that is good to hear” Zarko replied in a discouraging tone which achieved exactly nothing.
“Wanna race?”
“Uhh yeah,” Jarix replied as if that was the easiest question ever, which to his credit it might well be. “Not with all you lot on board you are rather heavy you know”
Tom looked around at the six people currently standing on Jarix’s back while flying. Well, Wiperna was still lying down which didn't really help with the space situation.
“Oh shut it Jarix it’s good exercise,” Zarko replied
“I flew nearly a week to get here. I don't need more exercise right now and my belly is full from last night as well.”
“Yesterday you were starving, now you're overfed. Does a happy medium exist?”
“Fewer people on my back would do nicely”
“Oh, poor dragon who can’t handle a few passengers”
“Really? How about I try and stand on you one day and see how that goes” They were clearly joking. Tom guessed they had known each other for a while. Based on what Archeon said, Jarix should be good for over a ton of cargo probably more. “And I only said if I was going to race someone.”
“Uhm before any racing could we not get some hunting?” Fengi asked. “Tom, could you do that trick you and Sapphire did again?”
“Sure I think Jarix has a better idea though.”
There was a bit of a crackle, then a boom, that made everyone flinch, followed by a chuckle from Jarix.
“Oh yeah, I do.”
Jackalopes excitement was both visible and audible as she cheered “Best hunt ever. No offense Tom”
”Hell no I can’t compete with a flying lightning cannon… Not yet at least”
“Isn’t that irresponsible?” Wiperna questioned.
“I’m not a huntress, who has seniority here?”Zarko replied. It was at that moment Tom realized the catastrophic error that had been committed, as he turned to Jackalope who was standing there obliviously. The only silvered huntress present.
As it finally clicked for her, she began cackling madly rubbing her hands together. “Let's get started”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sapphire was getting the distinct impression Baltehon was making this easy for her. Not once had she even had to go for something philosophical or even a metaphor. She didn’t mind, but after a while, the game did sort of die a bit. She had learned the one to her left, was called Canabrera, she was a little older than Sapphire, only a few years though and they had gotten a decent conversation going.
She even knew where Vultcha Keep was, apparently having made a few stops there in the past, having served with another trader who had elected to take some time off having made enough money for a while.
Canabrera was one of the newly hired escorts following the bloody battle to reach Bizmati keep. After a bit, Canabrera brought out some dice in a little box with a glass lid. Sapphire hadn’t seen one before. it was rather clever, even if you had to time the dice throws with the wingbeats to keep them from rolling around.
Sapphire had never been a gambling person, but a friendly game was always good fun. She glanced over at Baron every once in a while. As much as she would like to berate the bitch all the way there she was fairly confident things were gonna be more entertaining over here. She wondered how they would manage with Jarix back home. She had never seen a dragon hunt before, Esmeralda would get him in line though she was sure of that… Wait.
“Dakota!”
“What is it Saph?” Dakota replied, seemingly a bit confused at the sudden outburst.
“We left Jacky in charge of the hunt, with a dragon and Tom” Dakota developed a sort of deep thousand-yard stare. Not answering
“Ohh noo” Balethon added, shaking his head.
“What’s the matter, surely it can’t be that bad, she seemed friendly enough,” Canebrera questioned.
__________________________________________________________________________________
“Target dead ahead, we’ll break ’em up for ya. Fengi, Wiperna with me. Wanna come Zarko?”
“I’m fine here, the boys need some oversight I think.” This was yet another in the long list of stupid ideas that might work. Tom should maybe have tried to take some more responsibility but Jackalope was in charge so any disasters were on her after all. IT didn’t hurt that he really wanted to see how this lightning breath worked.
“Suit yourself, Geronimo!”
“Does she actually know what she is doing?” Radexi questioned.
“More than any of us I’m afraid” Tom answered.
“She seems very sensible” Jarix added, sounding perfectly serious. Perhaps assessing people’s character should be worked into the lessons Tom thought to himself.
The three girls set about herding the deer away from the forest further into the open marshes. Jarix following behind from above so as not to scare them yet.
“Now Tom this is gonna be a steep dive. Make sure those goggles are secure and you hang on tight.” Zarko went in a serious tone. Tom had no clue how quickly an 8-ton dragon could dive but it was likely fairly fast, so he did as instructed. He moved to make sure he had both good foot and handholds.
“They’re starting to split up now, here we go” Jarix pitched down pulling his wings in close to his sides as they began to fall. The sensation of being pulled down by Jarix was different from when Tom had flown with the dragonettes. They fell at about the same rate this was like holding onto an elevator with its cables cut. As the dive continued Tom guessed they were well above terminal velocity for a human. They had maybe 1.000 meters of altitude to scrub and Jarix didn’t seem to mind falling most of the way in one go.
Tom pulled himself close to Jarix lying as flat as he could manage the wind screaming in his ears. He had no clue how fast they were going, but he was fairly sure this was a new speed record for him in this world. Zarko and especially Radexi seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, even if Tom was unsure as to whether it was the dive or him providing the entertainment.
As they approached the ground Jarix started to slowly extend his wings, but only by a little. Tom looked around fighting the wind to get a better look. He was making a kind of delta wing? As the young dragon started to pull up the familiar sense of G-forces returned it was a strange feeling when lying on top of something but it was no less thrilling. This was a proper rollercoaster.
“Wuuuhuuu!!” Tom let out in glee. Oh yeah, this was about as much fun as he had imagined as a kid.
They came upon the herd of red deer they were still traveling at considerable speed. Tom strained to get as good a look as he could manage, looking over the side in front of Jarix’s left-wing.
He saw Jackalope off to the side, clearly positioned to get the best view she could as they came speeding by. Tom felt the hairs on his neck stand on end as the air around him almost started to crackle. The sound was more like that of a rail gun charging as Jarix inhaled it with a static electric whine that sent shivers down Tom’s spine. Followed by a single bright streak of bluish light that looked more like a beam than a lightning bolt. It impacted the ground in a split second resulting in a bright flash with lightning arcing in every direction, even in the middle of that day it was perfectly visible.
No long breath spreading the love around, it was like a single shot that hit the ground, followed by an echoing boom. Jarix hadn’t even managed to hit one of the deer, but the electrical arcs could be seen spreading through the grass as they went by.
Jarix pulled in a fresh breath letting out a sigh.
“Pheew, that oughta do it”
“Good shot, right on target”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Radexi added.
Tom looked behind them to see, maybe half a dozen deer all lying legs in the air, the grass blackened all around the small crater in the ground. The three girls came circling down as the remaining deer bolted in a blind panic.
“Holy shit” Tom let out gawking. That was one hell of a weapon, and he had been worried about a damn machine gun.
“Try that on for size, mister nearly as well-armed as me” Jarix went in a sarcastic tone, scoring a short laugh from Zarko and Radexi.
“Not gonna argue with that. Though it would be more like a storm of lightning”
“Oh I can do that too” Jarxi clarified “Spitting works great for ground targets though”
“You can say that again”
They had come down next to the others taking a look at the damage, which was extensive. Jackalope was beside herself with excitement of course.
“That was awesome, look at them! I mean that one is a bit busted, but still, look at them!”
Tom glanced around at the fairly singed looking deer, one clearly having been a bit close to the impact site. It was a disfigured mess hardly recognizable as a deer. He slid off Jarix to have a look around, inspecting the ground and the impact crater.
“You want that one Jarix? I mean it’s already sorta cooked.” Jackalope then went. pointing at the chared deer.
“Eew no, I don’t like raw meat, that’s for savages”
“We can light a fire under it if you want” She continued
“No thanks,” Jarxi replied, clearly not thrilled with the prospect.
“Isn’t this cruel?” Wiperna had questioned, clearly disturbed by the scene. In hindsight bringing the resident animal lover along might not have been the brightest idea, they had ever had.
“I doubt a deer has died this quickly around here in a while. Well short of when Sapphire decides to show off, anywho we need to get these back to the keep.” Jackalope’s answer sounding a tad annoyed at the part about Sapphire. “How much can you carry Jarix?”
Jarix took a step back looking at all the six dead deer. “Five is no problem” He finally replied, looking at the mangled one Tom was now inspecting.
“What’s the matter, soldier? Scared of blood?” Tom questioned
“No of course not. I’ll take five, they look heavy.”
“I guess we will have to come back for the last one then.” Tom just stated, getting up.
“But my harness” Jarix pleaded. Tom had to admit it was very nice. Mostly made of the dark blue leather the dragonettes seemed to use for most things. There were some white pieces here and there though. Most of the handholds were polished metal too and there was even some engraving on parts of the armor plates.
“A soldier that doesn’t want to get dirty? I have shown you what a soldier is expected to go through, does this look bad to you? Or do I need to get a mud bath going?”
“I’ll take all six... think you can scrub it out?” Jarix went looking to Radexi with a pained expression on his face.
“Sure thing boss” Well at least Radexi was still positive.
“I’ll grant you though it’s a nice harness. Perhaps we should have something less nice made for things like this.”
“But it’s mine though It was a gift from my mother.”
“Yeah, but there is no use ruining it. It should survive a bit of blood though if it’s as well made as it looks.” Jarix just let out a discontented grump as an answer.
By the time they had finished carrying all the deer up and lashing them down securely, Jarix looked more like a medivac for a fictional deer army than a hunter on the job. It did the trick though and they were soon airborne, the girls having gotten the herb collecting done prior to their arrival.
They had matched cruising speeds, the dragonettes flying under their own power with Jarix breaking the wind for them. It wasn’t fair that he had to carry both everything and everyone, after all. They had tried to keep the mess to a minimum but still, Radexi would have his work cut out for him.
They had set down outside the keep to begin the process of prepping the carcasses. Unkai and Herron had come down to meet them. In Tom and Esmeralda's stead, they had been tasked with taking care of the children for at least some of the day. Judging by the crying and the two very weary faces that had been a tall order even for a couple of hours.
“Hey Turinia, how is it going?” Tom tried in his best diplomatic voice.
“Holdey bit me” Turinia let out sobbing a bit.
“Holdey! that isn’t nice. Come here let me have a look at that.” Well, bite might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but there were actually teeth marks. Tom had struggled a bit with coming to terms with the at times slightly more violent tendencies of the dragonettes. This wasn’t that bad though.
“But she took my bricks!”
“NO, I was playing with them!”
“If you keep fighting over blocks of wood, like this you are never gonna get those legos I talked about. Now come here” Tom picked up Turinia to try and comfort her.
“Now now, no harm done and you shouldn’t take what isn’t yours either. Would you two help them unload? I’ll take care of this.” Raulf and Herron looked rather relieved at the prospect of physical labor so they must have had a rough time of it.
“Get yourself cleaned off Jarix and take some time off. There will be another movie tonight, a bit more fun than last time though..”
“Another movie?” Jackalope questioned excitedly.
“Yep two in fact, not about war though, but I think you are gonna like it.” Jackalope looked a little slack-eared, but Fengi and Wiperna definitely perked up at that.
So with Kiran clambering up to his usual perched Tom went about the next duty of his day. Trying to figure out whose bricks had been stolen and by whom. Maybe he should just make more bricks for them. That would have to come after winding the coils for the motor though. He wondered if Shiva was still conscious enough to discuss that?
__________________________________________________________________________________
So big dragon go *zap boom* and need some kleenex. As always I do hope enjoyed the chapter and the story as a whole, most of you certainly seem to do so. If you got any feedback, questions, or general banta by all means take to the comment's section below. I love prowling around down there looking for something interesting or hilarious.
Until next time have an awesome day.
​
ko-fi for those feeling generous
First Previous Next

Hello everyone; you may know of the new, OSR-focused magazine Knock! which is currently accepting pre-orders for a second (& final) printing after their initial, highly successful Kickstarter.
Many of the articles published in Knock! #1 are drawn from the blogosphere, so I went ahead and collected as many as I could. About half of the random tables are unique to Knock! #1, so I did not find any web sources. A few articles also eluded me, although I tried to provide links to the authors' sites when related info was available online.
Overall, the magazine provides a lot of unique art and other elements such as maps and interactive portions which can't be duplicated by the blogs listed here. With that being said, I was surprised by how little original content was included in the magazine, and also how long ago some of these articles were published. Knock! is currently calling for articles for the second edition (Knock! #2), so it will be interesting to see if they continue publishing the backlog, or focus more on new & original content.
Without further ado, the list:

1. What I Want in an OSR Game: http://swordandscoundrel.blogspot.com/2017/10/what-i-want-in-osr-game.html
2. A Comparison of Old and New D&D: http://the-city-of-iron.blogspot.com/2011/05/comparison-of-old-and-new-d.html
3. Monster Design from Classic: The Lich - https://www.bastionland.com/2018/12/monster-design-from-classics-lich.html
4. Does Energy Drain Suck? - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/251466/Echoes-From-Fomalhaut-02-Gont-Nest-of-Spies
5. Wizard Weaknesses - http://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2016/12/wizard-weaknesses.html
6. Get your Gear! – Random Table
7. The Retired Adventurer Is… - http://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2017/07/retired-warriors.html
8. Dungeon Checklist - http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/01/dungeon-checklist.html
9. What Kids’ RPGs are Missing – Ben Milton / Questing Beast
10. Wandering Monsters Should Have a Purpose in Wandering Around: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=1201
11. Hit Die Are Meant to be Rolled - based on: http://dragons.ie/thinking-about-hit-dice/
12. 20 Gunpowders – Random Table
13. Naming My Game - http://questingblog.com/adventure-game-vs-os
14. Expose your Prep - https://www.bastionland.com/2018/07/expose-your-prep.html
15. Encourage Scheming - https://www.bastionland.com/2018/09/encouraging-scheming.html
16. Why Setting High Stakes Matters - https://www.failuretolerated.com/why-setting-high-stakes-matters
17. What’s the Deal with Igor’s Hump? - http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2012/06/whats-deal-with-igors-hump.html
18. Some Ways of Killing D&D People - http://whatwouldconando.blogspot.com/2018/11/some-ways-of-killing-d-people.html
19. “Rulings Not Rules” is Insufficient - http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/02/osr-style-challenges-rulings-not-rules.html
20. My Goblins Are… - Random Table
21. The Labors of Hercules as OSR Obstacles - http://questingblog.com/the-labors-of-heracles-as-osr-obstacles/
22. What Do the Monsters Want? - https://www.failuretolerated.com/what-do-the-monsters-want
23. Save vs. Actual Death? - https://magickuser.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/save-vs-actual-death/
24. RPGs as Emotional Gambling - http://cavegirlgames.blogspot.com/2019/02/rpgs-as-emotional-gambling.html
25. Leaving Kansas - http://cavegirlgames.blogspot.com/2018/03/leaving-kansas.html
26. The Danger of Skills - http://swordandscoundrel.blogspot.com/2017/10/osr-project-2-danger-of-skills.html
27. 1d6 Thieving - https://tsojcanth.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/1d6-thieving/
28. Duels - http://cavegirlgames.blogspot.com/2018/06/duels-in-osr.html
29. 8 Statues Encounters – Knock! page published here: http://merrymushmen.canalblog.com/archives/2020/01/17/37948151.html (h/t u/WhatDoesStarFoxSay)
30. The Overly Thematic Dungeon - http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2017/02/blog-overly-thematic-dungeon.html
31. D12 Dungeon Geniuses - http://roll1d12.blogspot.com/2012/09/dungeon-geniuses.html
32. Better Treasures – based on http://tenfootpole.org/forum/index.php?threads/magic-items.145/#post-2243
33. It’s a Trap! - https://magickuser.wordpress.com/2020/01/01/its-a-trap-to-roll-or-not-to-roll/
34. What Happened in 1266? - http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/09/what-happened-in-1266.html
35. Impact - http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2017/10/impact.html
36. My Aesthetic is Pathetic – based on Monster Man podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/monster-man/special-episode-the-pathetic-IxKma13Dc_ and this article: http://drbargle.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-old-school-is-pathetic-rant.html
37. D20 Hooks – Random Table
38. D20 Magic Helmets – Random Table
39. The Tapestry and the Mosaic Box - http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2018/08/blog-tapestry-and-mosaic-box-on-scope.html
40. Liven Up Those Corridors - http://graphiteprime.blogspot.com/2019/07/liven-up-those-corridors.html
41. 34 Good Traps - https://www.bastionland.com/2018/08/34-good-traps.html
42. Useless Magic Loot - http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2012/12/useless-magic-loot.html
43. Borderlands - essays on the famous D&D setting by Nicolas Dessaux (Hobgoblin.fr)
44. 8 Variants of the Caves of Chaos – same author as above (Nicolas Dessaux)
45. Monster Derangement Syndrome - http://roll1d12.blogspot.com/2018/09/effects-of-monster-derangement-syndrome.html
46. I Eat the Body - https://magickuser.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/i-eat-the-body/
47. 12 Magic Blades - http://merrymushmen.canalblog.com/archives/2020/01/14/37940358.html
48. Sewers of Misery – Random Tables from Elfmaids & Octopi. All tables organized here: http://mutationapocalypse.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
49. Complete the Dungeon
50. Complete the Encounter
51. Just Use Bears - https://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2016/08/just-use-bears.html
52. Map Portfolio
53. New Player Classes
54. New Monsters
55. Adventures

Postscript: I was disappointed to notice a few typos in the magazine during my review for this post. I used the video read-throughs by Questing Beast and Chris McDowall, so I don't have a physical copy, but the errors were still apparent. One example is the sub-header on the "Better Treasure" article, where "worth" is typo'd as "forth." The Table of Contents also doesn't entirely match the actual article titles as published. I hope this is something that the Knock! team improves for their second edition.

I had started writing a post about what the next steps for the franchise could entail when I realized that a huge amount of it revolves around one guy... the player return we got from the Harden trade who happens to be entering Unrestricted Free Agency in a few months.
When the news came through that we had traded LeVert for Oladipo, many assumed that it was just a move to reduce salary by Tilman, but I reject that as overly pessimistic. Oladipo in his prime (which was not long ago at all) was a 2-time All Star and one of the premier defensive shooting guards in the league. His horrific injury has taken a bit of time to come back from, and worried Indiana enough to scare them off from wanting to deal with re-signing him to the max contract he will be requesting in Free Agency next summer. They saw so much value in having LeVert locked up on a cheaper deal for extra years that they were willing to take him on with his cancer concerns instead of dealing with a potential max deal for Vic. I don't see this as a salary move from Tilman so much as I see it as a gamble on a player returning from injury by Stone. Between taking chances on Wall, Boogie, and Nwaba, hoping players can come back from bad injuries is a common thread in his gambles and seems to be his "M.O.", so I'm thinking he honestly hopes Victor can come back to a significant percentage of his peak level.
Trading Harden for a younger All-Star SG +8 FRP assets is a massive coup of a deal... if Oladipo is capable of playing close to the level he was at before his injury.
Unfortunately, Victor hasn't gotten back to that level yet... But he isn't that far away, either. He has flashed his potential several times, but has had an equal number of horrific shooting nights. This lack of consistency is problematic, but if he could stabilize around the level of his better performances (which he is obviously capable of), there isn't really a question that he would be worth a near-max deal if not a full max.
Obviously, getting that consistency back is his primary goal and there is no reason to believe that it isn't our hope for him as well. If he does, then we can feel safe signing him to a long-term deal or, if he returns to form quickly enough, we can flip him for more assets.
The first option there is relatively straight forward. Re-signing him if he is close to his old production levels is a no-brainer. You've seen the reports that neither side are giving committed answers one way or the other at this point, which is sensible in terms of leverage in negotiations. Both sides know that he has more to prove and if he doesn't prove it, there isn't a good reason to offer him a max deal next summer. Some team will likely do it anyway, and there is even a chance that it may be us; but saying we are looking to do it before seeing that proof of play is a bad move (especially with no guarantee that another team will do it). It would be a mistake to offer him $34M/yr with 8% increases if he doesn't show serious progression from his current level of play. The question is... at what point does it no longer become a mistake?
Here is a list of available UFAs next summer (from Hoops Rumors):

2021 Unrestricted Free Agents

Point Guards

• Alex Caruso (27)
• Mike Conley (34)
• Quinn Cook (28)
• Matthew Dellavedova (31)
• Dante Exum (26)
• Shaquille Harrison (28)
• Reggie Jackson (31)
• Kyle Lowry (35)
• T.J. McConnell (29)
• Patty Mills (33)
• Raul Neto (29)
• Cameron Payne (27)
• Elfrid Payton (27)
• Derrick Rose (33)
• Dennis Schröder (28)
• Ish Smith (33)
• Jeff Teague (33)

Shooting Guards

• Sterling Brown (26)
• Reggie Bullock (30)
• Alec Burks (30)
• Wayne Ellington (34)
• Evan Fournier (29)
• Langston Galloway (30)
• Danny Green (34)
• Tyler Johnson (29)
• Furkan Korkmaz (24)
• Patrick McCaw (26)
• Ben McLemore (28)
• E’Twaun Moore (32)
• Victor Oladipo (29)
• J.J. Redick (37)
• Jerome Robinson (24)
• Iman Shumpert (31)
• Tony Snell (30)
• Garrett Temple (35)
• Denzel Valentine (28)
• Lou Williams (35)

Small Forwards

• Trevor Ariza (36)
• Nicolas Batum (33)
• Kent Bazemore (32)
• Torrey Craig (31)
• DeMar DeRozan (32)
• James Ennis (31)
• Tim Hardaway Jr. (29)
• Maurice Harkless (28)
• Solomon Hill (30)
• Stanley Johnson (25)
• Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (26)
• Wesley Matthews (35)
• Doug McDermott (29)
• Darius Miller (31)
• Abdel Nader (28)
• David Nwaba (28)
• Kelly Oubre (26)
• Otto Porter (28)
• Glenn Robinson III (27)
• JaKarr Sampson (28)

Power Forwards

• Carmelo Anthony (37)
• Nemanja Bjelica (33)
• Marquese Chriss (24)
• Gorgui Dieng (31)
• Jared Dudley (36)
• Rudy Gay (35)
• Taj Gibson (36)
• Jeff Green (35)
• James Johnson (34)
• Trey Lyles (26)
• Paul Millsap (36)
• Markieff Morris (32)
• Mike Muscala (30)
• Georges Niang (28)
• Semi Ojeleye (27)
• Jabari Parker (26)
• Patrick Patterson (32)
• Mike Scott (33)
• P.J. Tucker (36)

Centers

• LaMarcus Aldridge (36)
• Khem Birch (29)
• Bismack Biyombo (29)
• DeMarcus Cousins (31)
• Ed Davis (32)
• Andre Drummond (28)
• Cristiano Felicio (29)
• Harry Giles (23)
• Udonis Haslem (41)
• Willy Hernangomez (27)
• Richaun Holmes (28)
• Dwight Howard (36)
• Mfiondu Kabengele (24)
• Frank Kaminsky (28)
• Enes Kanter (29)
• Luke Kornet (26)
• Alex Len (28)
• Robin Lopez (33)
• Boban Marjanovic (33)
• JaVale McGee (33)
• Nerlens Noel (27)
• Kelly Olynyk (30)
• Daniel Theis (29)
• Moritz Wagner (24)
• Hassan Whiteside (32)
• Cody Zeller (29)

Although there are some interesting names on the list, unless Schroeder ends up with a FMVP or Jrue Holiday or Kawhi Leonard decide to leave their teams, Victor Oladipo is probably going to be the most sought-after Free Agent next summer. A fair number of teams have max space, so it is likely that he will get his max deal from somewhere. Oladipo has expressed interest in Miami, but they aren't likely to have a max slot available after signing Bam to his extension. A number of other teams do have plenty of space available, though, including the Knicks, Bulls, and Spurs.
If you can't see where I'm going with this, the question is... should we also consider being a team that offers him a max contract? Obviously we don't want to get caught up in a bad contract that prevents us from missing out on other Free Agents! Well, who else on that list strikes you as someone we should spend money on? There are some interesting names. Harry Giles... Otto Porter... Hey, maybe we could get Kelly Oubre!
But anyone we would want will also be wanted by another team, and there will be a bidding war that also makes that guy overpaid. In short, I'm suggesting that year 1 of an Oladipo max would not be a problem even if it were an overpay.
Well what about year 2? Here is a list of available FAs the following summer:

Unrestricted Free Agents

Point Guards

• Patrick Beverley (34)
• Michael Carter-Williams (31)
• Stephen Curry (34)
• Tyus Jones (26)
• Rajon Rondo (36)
• Terry Rozier (28)
• Ricky Rubio (32)
• Delon Wright (30)

Shooting Guards

• Gary Harris (28)
• Jeremy Lamb (30)
• Zach LaVine (27)
• Marcus Smart (28)

Small Forwards

• Kyle Anderson (29)
• Danuel House (29)
• Wesley Iwundu (28)
• Josh Jackson (25)
• Jake Layman (28)
• Taurean Prince (28)
• T.J. Warren (29)

Power Forwards

• Robert Covington (32)
• Dorian Finney-Smith (29)
• Aaron Gordon (27)
• Joe Ingles (35)

Centers

• Thomas Bryant (25)
• Marc Gasol (37)
• Jahlil Okafor (27)
• Tristan Thompson (31)
• Jonas Valanciunas (30)

Zach LaVine is obviously the highlight here. Aaron Gordon and Terry Rozier are some other interesting names (and it's worth pointing out that Brooklyn's Big 3 could opt-out and enter FA). Is the hope of convincing Zach LaVine to sign here worth leaving open space for? Maybe you think so, but I'd suggest it's not.
Because here's the thing...
We can trade Oladipo.
Obviously we can trade him in the next 7 weeks, but we can trade him after re-signing him, too. In fact, as long as he doesn't get re-injured or regress horribly (the latter being something we can probably determine this year if you aren't already convinced), it won't be so hard to move his contract. A 30% max contract is not the problem that a 35% supermax represents. Any of the big name Free Agents could be sign and traded by their teams in return for Oladipo. If his contract has turned negative, we may need to include a pick or two... but we have a lot of those! And using them to move a bad contract as a way to sign a top-tier FA really isn't a waste of picks. It's essentially the same thing as using picks to trade for a superstar (WHICH WE CAN ALSO DO! more on that in a minute). Using Oladipo as salary filler in future trades is a good reason on its own to keep him around. There is a chance the deal will look like an overpay, but unless he has a horrific injury or falls off a cliff (which doesn't seem likely, imo), it isn't going to be that negative.
Victor will make over $10M/yr less than Harden is scheduled to make next year. Add that to an increased salary cap, and we can probably re-sign him to a max, re-sign Nwaba with Early Bird Rights, and along with Wall, Gordon, Wood, House, Tate, KJ, Ma$e and KPJ, have room to use the MLE and still fill out a roster while remaining under the tax.
It's basically this year's roster minus PJ, Ben, and Brown, but with an MLE signing to help out. Is that a Championship roster? No. It is competitive and has significant upside if the youth improve and the vets recover further from injury, but Wall and Oladipo are not the top-tier superstar needed to win a title.
But either one of them could easily be the 3rd best guy on a Championship team (with the other being sent away as salary match if/when such a deal arises) and resigning Vic - even to a max contract, if necessary - allows us time to find a trade for a superstar (or sign one in Free Agency by trading one of our guards).
I hear you calling me crazy for suggesting it. But what are the alternatives? Let's game plan them out, too. The popular idea is trading Vic before the deadline for more assets. This is not a bad idea... in fact, it may even be a better plan than re-signing him... but only if he can bring back a good deal.
What does a good trade for Oladipo look like? Well, in his prime he was a decidedly better player than Jrue Holliday, who just got traded for a decent player in Eric Bledsoe as well as 3 FRPs. It's unlikely that Oladipo will return to that form in the next 7 weeks (although not impossible, especially with the extra opportunity that Wood's injury affords him), but if he continues to flash that level of potential, we would be getting robbed to let go of him for anything less than 2 very lightly protected FRPs.
If that's the price for someone to trade for him, do you see it happening? I really don't. Maybe we get lucky and Miami gets desperate. Maybe another contender with assets to spare (there aren't so many left) decides to throw down an offer with hopes of a promise that he will re-sign (likely a max contract) with them. Again, I don't see this as likely. It would be great if it happens, though!
No, it is unlikely we can trade Oladipo for more than a FRP and some expiring filler. Now you may think that sounds like a good deal, but is it? Certainly it isn't good compared to what New Orleans got for Jrue, and while Oladipo doesn't look as good as Holiday right now, he undeniably has the potential to look that good. So the question is, do we certainly lose value on him by trading him on the cheap, or do we take a risk of losing value if he can't regain max-contract form. The former is obviously safer, the latter could obviously blow up if he has a career-ending injury (but it could also pay off with significantly higher rewards than a FRP).
So unless we get a lucky deal, it comes down to what our appetite for risk is. I'd say roll the dice on Vic. He's only 28, so age is not really a factor on his next contract. It's completely a question of how close to his old self he can return to. We've seen some promising signs in the short season so far, and will now get a month of real opportunity to gather information on him.
And here's the biggest problem with trading him for bad value... if we trade him for a pick without getting a very solid player in return, our roster will absolutely get worse. It drops us from our current status of 'bottom bracket playoff team' to 'No-Mans land'... being in the 9-12 range.
That's a horrible spot to land. If we are there, it makes more sense to tank, leading us into the last section of this essay on guarding our assets...
DON'T TANK
It's 2 AM here and I've been writing for too long, so I'm gonna make this short and sweet.
Tanking sucks. Losing sucks. We don't want to be losers if we can be semi-competitive. Showing a commitment to winning attracts Free Agents, keeps Wood happy, and allows us to maintain a franchise that is literally one piece away from being right back as a contender.
We are not Oklahoma City. Free Agents want to play in Houston. Maybe its not LA, NY, or Miami, but there aren't many other cities above us on the list of destinations. If we trade for a guy, he's liable to stay. We don't need to rely on high draft picks to get talent.
(side note: tanking is not even a reliable way of getting talent! Between reduced lottery odds and the uncertainty of high picks panning out, it's a bad way to depend on getting a superstar. Philly and OKC are the closest examples of it 'working out' and those were under the old lottery odds... now it would be significantly harder. Additionally, remaining competitive keeps our Brooklyn pick swaps in play as being assets. If we sell all assets and aim for the bottom, then it will be a long climb out in which at least 2 and quite possibly 3 of our swaps are basically completely surrendered, whereas keeping competitive can allow those swaps to become quite valuable even if the Nets don't bottom out as badly as they did for Boston. Not to mention the increased danger of giving much better picks to OKC)
Signing or trading for stars are MUCH more reliable methods... and we now have the picks to trade with. So that should be our preferred path to contention. Wait for the next top-tier superstar to become unhappy and fire away to get him. Only OKC and NO can compete with our picks package (and we can offer a decent player in return as an additional bonus!)
So when that next disgruntled star shakes free (which has happened more and more frequently), we stand poised to strike stronger than any team in the league.
A new era of contenders is on the horizon. The Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Nets are aging out. The Nuggets and Celtics are the types of teams we look to be competing against in a few years. Those are the superstars we need to be worrying about for now... not the old guard, but the young ones. Tanking next year puts us way behind in a rebuild that is only one move away. So get those thoughts out of your heads. We can compete with those teams with Wood, another star, and Oladipo or Wall along with all our promising young talent.
We will be back sooner than anyone expects. And as surprising as it sounds, the first step may well be signing Oladipo to a max contract next summer.

Hi boardgames, I'm Zack Hiwiller. I've been posting here a long time, so I hope you will excuse one self-promoting post that has some honest discussion in it.
This week, I launched my first board game Kickstarter for Scribbletown, a tight, thinky roll-and-write game that I first signed to a publisher in 2016(!) but which got caught up in some unrelated business turmoil. The rights reverted back to me this past year, so I'm taking the dive into self-publishing on my own.
If you would like to check out the Kickstarter, it is live right now. There are links for the TTS module and a free print-and-play sample in the campaign. I certainly won't mind if you go check it out. But that's not why I'm here. There have been threads every few days about the rising costs overall of Kickstarters and I want to see if I can help shed some light.
Picture by Aspie Gamer Girl
I want to talk a little bit about the costs involved in designing and publishing a game.
Scribbletown's price is $35. It's a price I came to after a lot of work and deliberation. I knew I wanted big, etched dice from the first prototype I made. Since playing Let's Make a Bus Route, I knew I wanted everyone to have laminated boards. Since playing On Tour, I knew I wanted to support more than 4 players out of the box. These production goals rise the cost significantly and allow me to at least bill the game as "deluxe", but the quality of components aren't the problem.
Print Run Sizes: There are tiers of publishers in terms of what size print runs they can support. When everyone was freaking out about Stonemaier not printing enough Wingspan copies upon release, that first run was something like 10,000 copies. Wingspan wouldn't even be a big production run by the standards of the biggest hits in the industry. It's impossible to know what the sales are of other games, but for the names of games most of you recognize, that wouldn't be an outrageously-sized print run.
Most manufacturers will not take a print run under 1,000 copies. It isn't worth the fixed cost of creating dies and such to do so. The smaller the print run, the higher the unit cost. If I were able to print 2,000 copies of Scribbletown, I could do so around 25% cheaper than 1,000 copies. Additionally, consider all of the costs of design, development, art, advertising (oh God the marketing costs), and other business expenses are all fixed so on a per-unit basis they are higher when you print fewer. It makes games with smaller print runs much more expensive to make than would be seen just by looking at the component costs.
Consider that not having a built-in audience from previous projects mean that new publishers have to spend more on marketing to be seen. My costs for marketing have exceeded my cost for art.
Kickstarter Inertia: Let's say I could get 2,000 backers. (Fingers crossed). I couldn't go in and retroactively lower the cost of pledges by 25%. Kickstarter doesn't allow for that(*). So instead, I use the economies of scale to produce stretch goals (and hopefully bank some profit that will cover unexpected costs). But being successful at the original (higher) price lets publishers know that the market will bear that price, so there is no incentive to lower the price even at higher print run volumes unless they believe there was untapped consumer surplus at lower prices.
I think you see this in the exploding prices for minis games. They have enormous fixed costs (in comparison), so the price at the minimum order number is high. But when those campaigns go gangbusters, it just proves to everyone else that people will pay those high prices. The cycle gets vicious.
A handful of folks have pledged a dollar just to comment on my campaign or message me that they would never pay $35 for a roll-and-write, regardless of the components or complexity. Then they cancel their dollar pledge. I get it. Things can only be priced at what the market will bear. Money is always tight for everyone. But we don't know what the market will bear in advance, so you base it off of the cost of doing business and the price of games with a similar weight, complexity, and audience. I'm hoping people will see Scribbletown and compare it to medium-light and mid-weight Euros rather than the filler fare they currently see roll-and-writes as. In that case, $35 is a steal.
Shipping Costs: I could make the game with cheaper (and fewer) components and lower the price marginally, but I can't lower the shipping costs significantly. Even if I were to lower the weight by 25%, shipping wouldn't get 25% cheaper. Did you know that the costs of shipping have gone up _significantly_ in the last year? Most campaigns are already charging less for shipping than the actual total costs of shipping and handling and just absorbing the cost as part of the unit cost.
And psychologically, there is more pause given for a $20 game with $15 shipping than there would be with a $35 game with $15 shipping, even if they end up being a similar weight/volume. Lowering the overall price makes the shipping look _more_ expensive because of the ratio of price to shipping. I suspect it makes people want to wait for a retail release that may never come so that they can avoid the shipping costs.
My goal for this project is to break even and pay myself $0/hour for the hundreds of hours of design and production prep (and sleepless nights) that has gone into this project. Why? Because it will help me build for whatever the next project will be. I'm hoping to make this work long-term. But even with Kickstarter, with the ease of use of the global supply chain, with middleware services and etc that make it possible for anyone to do this, the momentum issues of starting from a small audience put new publishers behind the eight ball and make just surviving look greedy.
TL;DR:
- The more copies you can print, the lower the costs, the more units you can amortize fixed costs over and the cheaper it can be for consumers.
- New publishers without a built-in audience can't print large numbers, so their costs will be necessarily higher per-unit.
- Kickstarter doesn't allow you to change prices mid-campaign, so a campaign will likely charge whatever they think they can make do with at the smallest possible print run, even if they end up having a larger print run. This creates a cycle where that price becomes the norm even if the publisher benefits from economies of scale.
- It's hard for new and small publishers. Be kind. We know you are price sensitive. If we have success, then some day we can get into distribution and you can benefit from the scale that allows us to make games for stores that don't charge shipping. But we have to get there first.
If you want to take a gamble on a new game, try supporting independent publishers. Your marginal dollar means so much more to us than it does to those who can afford big print runs.
- Shameless end plug: Scribbletown on Kickstarter. :-) Feel free to AMA. I may write about the costs of pitching designs to publishers versus self-publishing sometime in the future.
Another picture by Aspie Gamer Girl. Check out her channel on Youtube for content in both English and Spanish. She's great.
(*) I recently pledged in a campaign that offered discounts during the KS by providing credits in the pledge manager. That's an interesting approach and I hope to see it more often in the future.