Galahad's recent activity

  1. Comment on On DM’ing for the first time in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
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    This was a great write-up. A few tips that I've learned over the years: Fudging rolls is part of the game. At its core, TTRPGs are a group story-telling exercise. Don't let the rules get in the...

    This was a great write-up. A few tips that I've learned over the years:

    • Fudging rolls is part of the game. At its core, TTRPGs are a group story-telling exercise. Don't let the rules get in the way of a compelling narrative. If the story is improved by someone failing or succeeding, make sure it happens!
    • In the past, I've always tried to make sure every player gets "spotlight" time. If, at the end of a session, every player can say 'oh man remember when I did this', then I consider it a success. It's less applicable with more "emergent" games as described in another comment thread, but in something like 5e it definitely applies.
    • Players are dumb. Don't expect them to read between the lines. If you want to speed up gameplay or decision-making, be explicit with them. "You feel a draft coming across the room" can be misinterpreted, but "you're fairly sure there's a secret door in here" can't. It might break immersion, but I've found if you're trying to power through, most players won't even mind it if you dumb it down a little. Hell, I've combined them before: "You find a holy symbol depicting a starburst. The cleric knows this as a symbol of law. This is a good god. Which is weird. Because you're in a dark temple. Why would this be here?"
    5 votes

  2. Comment on On DM’ing for the first time in ~games.tabletop

  3. Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk

  4. Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    Oh man, forgot about Kiwanis. And I guess I'll also add the Shriners because those little cars and fezzes are dope

    Oh man, forgot about Kiwanis. And I guess I'll also add the Shriners because those little cars and fezzes are dope

    5 votes

  5. Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk

    Galahad
    (edited )
    Link
    I'm not sure if you're American or not, but out here we have a bunch of privately run organizations that exist essentially to make their communities better. Sounds like exactly what you're...

    I'm not sure if you're American or not, but out here we have a bunch of privately run organizations that exist essentially to make their communities better. Sounds like exactly what you're describing -- a group of people coming together to make changes, however big or small, to provide help and services to those who need it. If you want to get involved in your community, I guarantee these are some of the most effective ways to do so. A few examples:

    Rotary Club

    It's a big service organization which, admittedly, seems to be populated with people who are just there to grow connections and rub shoulders with shot-callers in the area. But that doesn't mean they don't do good things -- they built an accessible playground for kids with disabilities around here that everyone seems to rave about.

    Freemasons

    Everybody says these guys stole the Declaration of Independence from Nicolas Cage or some shit, but the reality is it's a fraternal organization that does a bunch of community work helping out, raising money, that kind of thing.

    If you're already a master mason: Shriners International

    The Elks

    The Flintstones made jokes about these guys back in the 70s via the Benevolent Order of the Water Buffalo, but it's the same thing as the others, albeit maybe smaller. Groups of neighbors coming together to do community service, help feed hungry people, bring a little light into the world.

    Honorable Mentions

    Fraternal Order of Eagles
    Independent Order of Odd Fellows
    Kiwanis Club

    Drawbacks

    The reality is, most of these organizations are full of old retirees. They meet in the middle of the day during the week and they've got a bunch of really old school notions of how the world operates. To an extent, they're right, but the world's changing and a lot of them need to be dragged into the 21st century.

    Silver Lining

    But, to me, that means they need younger people there! People who can become leaders by bringing a few fresh ideas. And there is sooo much low-hanging fruit in a lot of these organizations. Even stuff like actually having a social media page to get people to show up to events -- really simple stuff that younger people are good at.

    Anyway, I forget where I was going with this. These people have the tools and resources to help affect change. Get involved, don't be intimidated, and don't underestimate what you can bring to the table to a bunch of already-well-connected people in your community!

    24 votes

  6. Comment on The mysterious life and questionable claims of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter in ~sports.baseball

    Galahad
    Link
    Weird fact about baseball players gambling: Paul Giamatti's dad was the guy who banned Pete Rose after the gambling scandal back in 89

    Weird fact about baseball players gambling: Paul Giamatti's dad was the guy who banned Pete Rose after the gambling scandal back in 89

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Google is killing Retro Dodo and other independent sites in ~tech

    Galahad
    Link
    Full disclosure, I ditched Google for Kagi on the recommendation of this forum and will likely never go back. So fundamentally, I'd say I agree with the premise. I read the article and, while it's...

    Full disclosure, I ditched Google for Kagi on the recommendation of this forum and will likely never go back. So fundamentally, I'd say I agree with the premise.

    I read the article and, while it's lamentable that this website that I've never heard of is going under due to Google not prioritizing its results, this stood out to me:

    I honestly hope that Google can eventually create a search engine that’s fair, one that supports small independent publishers who actually follow their guidelines instead of punishing them for “writing for search engines and not readers” and treating them differently to websites that have a higher “domain authority” than them.

    Imagine running a website that makes money from ad revenue, it starts to go under because your results aren't getting prioritized, and your suggested solution is for the internet search monopoly to make its search algorithm more "fair."

    Also, notably:

    I am no SEO expert;l I have a million plates to spin as a content website operator, and I cannot get everything right.

    I'm sympathetic, really, but maybe you need to shift your focus for a little while and become one, man. Flexibility and agility is what being a small business owner is.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on Tell me your Christmas ghost stories! in ~talk

    Galahad
    Link
    You've heard of the legend of Zorro? The story about the Mexican swashbuckler who swore vengeance on a corrupt governor for killing his wife? Turns out, Zorro was based on a real dude. A dude by...

    You've heard of the legend of Zorro? The story about the Mexican swashbuckler who swore vengeance on a corrupt governor for killing his wife?

    Turns out, Zorro was based on a real dude. A dude by the name of Joaquin Murietta. He hailed from a little pueblo that's now called Fresno, California. He became an outlaw when, you guessed it, the mayor unjustly executed his wife. He spent his days knocking over stagecoaches in the Pacheco Pass (that stretch of 152 that goes to the 5 from 101). The story goes they caught him, chopped his head off and the mayor had it pickled, sitting in a jar in his office.

    But they say, to this day, on a quiet night in the Pacheco Pass, you can still hear the hoofbeats of Joaquin Murietta and his band of outlaws coming to knock over your stagecoach.

    Now, I've never heard any hoofbeats, but I have heard gunfire. It's probably just the local ranchers blowing off some steam. Probably.

    8 votes

  9. Comment on In the face of mounting climate risks, the US insurance safety net is falling apart in ~enviro

    Galahad
    Link
    It seems to me that, at least in the long term, this is a good thing. In the immediate term, you've got 2/3 of the country underinsured on homeowners insurance, which is definitely a bad thing,...

    It seems to me that, at least in the long term, this is a good thing.

    In the immediate term, you've got 2/3 of the country underinsured on homeowners insurance, which is definitely a bad thing, but I took away a couple of key points:

    • The global reinsurance market is pricing in climate issues and rates are rising as a result
    • Reducing insurability is a key tool in reducing greenhouse emissions; when insurance companies stopped insuring coal plants, new coal plant creation plummeted

    I've thought for years that the day we make fixing the climate profitable is the day we save the world. Properly pricing in the cost of climate change is a key step in doing that and it sounds like insurance companies are on the front lines figuring out what the proper cost actually is.

    When people can't get insurance and their land values plummet, that's the type of squeeze that spurs a proper government response -- hopefully it's not just price fixing (which would double down on shortages) and actually results in some meaningful conversations about curbing emissions.

    9 votes

  10. Comment on PowersHell and graph - setting SharePoint folder permissions help in ~comp

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    Happy to hear it -- like I was mentioning before, those cmdlets are probably automatically generated based on a Swagger doc or something from the REST endpoints. If you end up running into those...

    Happy to hear it -- like I was mentioning before, those cmdlets are probably automatically generated based on a Swagger doc or something from the REST endpoints. If you end up running into those module dependency issues again, the nice thing is you're already 70% of the way to integrating directly with those REST endpoints. The only major hurdle left would be to implement the authentication and token handling.

  11. Comment on PowersHell and graph - setting SharePoint folder permissions help in ~comp

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    You ought to do a write-up of it after you've figured it all out -- I'm curious to see how you solve it

    You ought to do a write-up of it after you've figured it all out -- I'm curious to see how you solve it

    1 vote

  12. Comment on PowersHell and graph - setting SharePoint folder permissions help in ~comp

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    Yeah, that link in my comment says it sets permissions and optionally e-mails users about it, so I think that creating sharing links is definitely related, but maybe not quite the same thing?...

    Yeah, that link in my comment says it sets permissions and optionally e-mails users about it, so I think that creating sharing links is definitely related, but maybe not quite the same thing? Regardless, +1

    You can do it, u/g33kphr33k. Be brave, suck it up, and integrate directly with REST. You'll learn a lot

    3 votes

  13. Comment on PowersHell and graph - setting SharePoint folder permissions help in ~comp

    Galahad
    Link
    Just spit-balling here, but it looks like there are a few REST endpoints for what they're calling DriveItems. These look like logical resources that include SharePoint document libraries and...

    Just spit-balling here, but it looks like there are a few REST endpoints for what they're calling DriveItems. These look like logical resources that include SharePoint document libraries and folders.

    Within that, there is an Add Permissions endpoint. It looks like you gotta provide it a list of DriveRecipient objects, although the example seems to indicate you can just use an e-mail address?

    You're gonna need to figure out the IDs of the folders you're creating -- they're probably returned as part of the creation -- and feed those into this permissions endpoint, then provide e-mails or aliases along with the permissions you want to provide.

    At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I still recommend you leverage the REST endpoints directly over the out-of-the-box PSModules due to those dependency issues you were encountering last time (even though those examples do have a pwsh tab). It'll make your code more robust and it's good function-building practice.

    EDIT: Don't think I didn't notice that your spelling only includes a single capital letter this time. You'll come around :P

    5 votes

  14. Comment on PowersHELL scripting in ~comp

    Galahad
    (edited )
    Link
    A couple of things to consider. Specifically to your issue, you may want to consider looking into the #Requires keyword. It should make fixing versions of modules easier and I'd recommend it...

    A couple of things to consider. Specifically to your issue, you may want to consider looking into the #Requires keyword. It should make fixing versions of modules easier and I'd recommend it particularly if you're consuming the Az modules (although to your point, it's a web of dozens of interconnected modules and it might take a couple hours to figure out which versions of what module you need to fix).

    Alternatively, if you're used to bash, you're probably pretty familiar with curl. Most, if not all, of the use cases you're describing have REST endpoints you can integrate with using Invoke-RestMethod:

    It has the added benefit of returning the calls in object format which, fan of pwsh or not, is way easier to work with than what curl returns.

    Chances are those PSModules you're leveraging are just using the REST endpoints behind the scenes (many of the modules are auto-generated based on the REST endpoints), so leveraging them directly will both give you more control over the information returned and allow you to fix the backend REST endpoint in your code so you don't run into those version bump issues you're seeing now.

    Edit: Additionally, you could also look into PSDepend. It's been around for a while and can help manage dependencies (once you figure out what you need exactly). If you're distributing this to the rest of your team, it'd be a handy tool to get their environment configured properly. Also added a few useful doc links.

    10 votes

  15. Comment on Anything of interest for you at GenCon? in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    I was there last year, it was mandatory masks, but attendance was still solid. This year the mask mandate is over and, while I still expect attendance to be below pre-COVID levels, it's looking...

    I was there last year, it was mandatory masks, but attendance was still solid. This year the mask mandate is over and, while I still expect attendance to be below pre-COVID levels, it's looking like it's shaping up to be big. True Dungeon makes the trip worthwhile no matter what, pretty much. Plus last year got me into DCC, which is great.

    In no particular order:
    Sky Team looks dope for a 2p game.
    Weirdwood Manor: Saw this last year in the early alpha, talked with the designer. A round board game?! Could be cool.
    Oh No, Volcano! looks super goofy but it's a plinko game, how can I resist?

  16. Comment on The argument for Dungeon Crawl Classics in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    The official Goodman Games Discord has a lot of great discussion and resources. There's always groups looking to play. Coming from Shadowrun and D&D previously, I will say that DCC has one of the...

    The official Goodman Games Discord has a lot of great discussion and resources. There's always groups looking to play.

    Coming from Shadowrun and D&D previously, I will say that DCC has one of the lowest barriers to entry I've seen in a TTRPG. And, I'm with you, the artwork across the board is awesome. Everything looks like it belongs on a t-shirt at a metal concert

    1 vote

  17. Comment on The argument for Dungeon Crawl Classics in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    Now there's something I don't get lol. I'm going to give it a shot at gencon this fall, maybe it'll change my mind. The road crew is really great

    Now there's something I don't get lol. I'm going to give it a shot at gencon this fall, maybe it'll change my mind. The road crew is really great

  18. Comment on The argument for Dungeon Crawl Classics in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    Variety of monsters, multiple paths in the castle, epic boss battle at the end. Really I just think it's a great example of how, even at level 0 or 1, the stakes can be super high. You're supposed...

    Variety of monsters, multiple paths in the castle, epic boss battle at the end. Really I just think it's a great example of how, even at level 0 or 1, the stakes can be super high. You're supposed to take down a reborn chaos lord and you basically just have a pitchfork. But if not you, who? Anybody who survives gets to feel like a for-real grizzled hero.

    Plus there's a table to roll on for what the beastmen look like, which I think is a great touch.

  19. Comment on The argument for Dungeon Crawl Classics in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    The quickstart rules come in PDF and it contains rules up to level 3, I think, along with a stripped down spellbook. Great way to get your feet wet and any adventures you buy come with a digital...

    The quickstart rules come in PDF and it contains rules up to level 3, I think, along with a stripped down spellbook. Great way to get your feet wet and any adventures you buy come with a digital copy. But yeah, I get it, even the softcover rulebook is like 6 lbs :P

    1 vote

  20. Comment on The argument for Dungeon Crawl Classics in ~games.tabletop

    Galahad
    Link Parent
    It's tough not to recommend Sailors on the Starless Sea, it's a classic. But I also had a great session with Intrigue at the Court of Chaos - pitting the characters against one another resulted in...

    It's tough not to recommend Sailors on the Starless Sea, it's a classic. But I also had a great session with Intrigue at the Court of Chaos - pitting the characters against one another resulted in some really memorable moments.