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[personal profile] ffutures
This is an offer of Hearts of Wulin, featuring "the Apocalypse Engine game of Chinese wuxia melodrama."

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/HeartsOfWulin

 

The main game material was in a previous bundle, this bundle adds three new supplements, including one for running detective mysteries in the style of Judge Dee etc. The whole lot is very cheap, and for once I don't think it's going to be worth cherry-picking  if you're even slightly interested. I should probably add that I know very little about wuxia as a genre - there may be other games out there that handle it better.

The Friday Five on a Sunday

Jul. 13th, 2025 09:08 pm
nanila: (Bush Fire Hazard)
[personal profile] nanila
  1. What was the most sick that you've ever been?

    I came down with flu when Keiki was about 4 months old. That is the most ill I've been in my adult life. I could hardly get out of bed and my temperature was over 40 C for several days. Runner up would be the ear infection I had when I was 11, which was so bad my teacher found me lying on the concrete floor of the playground because my ear was too hot. It was the middle of winter.

  2. What disease are you afraid of getting?

    All of them, but mostly: Dementia.

  3. Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses?

    No. I am a big fan of medical intervention for illness and pain.

  4. Is going to the doctor really THAT bad?

    Not at all, it's just time-consuming, which is why I tend to put it off.

  5. Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it?

    Assuming “the flu” really does mean influenza and not a bad cold, absolutely not. Genuine flu is completely debilitating. It took me two weeks to recover from the bout I had in Answer 1. This scenario would mean being continuously sick. No thank you.

Photo cross-post

Jul. 13th, 2025 07:24 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


My primate family.

The exhibition at the museum is very quiet and rather good. Recommended!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

Photo cross-post

Jul. 12th, 2025 11:30 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


Off on an awfully big adventure
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker
Right now (7:30am) it is 14 degrees outside.

It is 24 degrees in our bedroom, despite the windows being open all night. Humidity is 92%.

This afternoon it will rise to 26 degrees. I'm glad the office has air conditioning. I'm not looking forward to tonight.

Another GURPS Bundle - Pyramid 2

Jul. 9th, 2025 06:38 pm
ffutures: (Default)
[personal profile] ffutures
This is the second bundle of Pyramid Magazine issues I mentioned on Monday, covering the second half of Volume 3 of Pyramid (62 issues, Nov 2013 - Dec 2018)

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Pyramid2

 

There's not really much to add to what I said previously - you get a lot of material for a huge range of genres, and a lot of it is easily adapted to other RPGs. On Monday I think I underestimated how much these bundles are saving - if you buy the lot the cost is about 10% of what you pay for the issues individually. If you don't already own most of them it's probably worth a look.

nanila: me (Default)
[personal profile] nanila
I have been struggling to concentrate today. It was hard not to spiral back to that day. I had been living in London (and therefore the UK) for less than a year. I spent much of the day unable to contact family and friends to reassure them I was OK because the mobile networks were overwhelmed. I remember walking the crowded streets to meet friends and my then-partner. The faces of the shuffling Londoners. The relentless wail of sirens.

I'm coping by watching the BBC documentary series on the bombings. For some reason I need some kind of external validation for feeling the way I do today and this is providing it.

(Access locked) Posts from that date: DW, LJ

Here is what I wrote on the 8th of July, 2005. I don't think I agree with myself here, not entirely. I was rationalising my own fear. The body count is also the point.

Terrorism isn't about the reality of statistics. Of the several million people living in or visiting the greater London area, a tiny percentage were physically hurt or killed by the bombings. A slightly larger percentage witnessed them firsthand, and a huge number of them were temporarily inconvenienced by the shutdown of the London Transport system. The chances that the next bus or tube journey that the average Londoner makes will have a bomb on it are not much greater than they were yesterday or will be tomorrow. But, as I said, this is not about statistics. It's about the perception of statistics. However miniscule your chances were and are of being blown to bits by a terrorist attack, they are now at the forefront of your mind, whether you want them to be or not.

Terrorism isn't about the frequency of occurrence of terrorist acts, or of similar kinds of attacks made during open war. Londoners of different generations experienced the Blitz and the IRA bombings of the 1980s. Many of them have been through this before. However, it is the very unpredictability of terrorism that makes it so frightening, that makes a return to normalcy as difficult as it was the last time, because the ordinary citizen has no way of knowing when, where or if another attack will happen.

People deal with this in a myriad of ways. Some become defiant, others resigned. Some find themselves swallowing down fear for weeks, months or years after the events, every time they board a bus or enter an Underground station. This is the real point of terrorist attacks, not the body count. All emotional responses are fully permissible, but it is the way that we act upon them that will determine whether or not we build a world in which the slight probability of terrorist attack on the average citizen will continue to be a weapon that can wield so much power.
ffutures: (Default)
[personal profile] ffutures
Two offers for Steve Jackson Games' GURPS RPG system - The first is a new bundle of the first sixty issues of Volume 3 of Pyramid Magazine (2008-2013), the other is a repeat bundle of GURPS 4E Essentials - the rules and the most useful supplements etc.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Pyramid1



https://bundleofholding.com/presents/July2025GURPS



 


Pyramid magazine has always been a useful resource for GURPS, and a lot of it is readily adapted to other systems. This offer feels a little on the expensive side, but you're paying less than a dollar an issue, compared to $6 and up if you buy them individually, which is a very good deal if you don't already own a lot of them. A follow-on bundle which launches on Wednesday has a lot more issues, the remainder of Volume 3.

When the GURPS 4E bundle was last on offer I said "GURPS is probably the most popular generic RPG rules set, designed to be readily adapted to any setting. It's reasonably easy to pick up, though there are other games out there that easier to learn, and has a vast range of support material available. This Essentials offer is aimed at people who don't already own the game at all - I own most of it already in dead tree format, the exceptions are things that simply don't interest me much such as the Mass Combat supplement. If you don't already own it, and want a very adaptable rules set, it's well worth a look." I don't see any reason to change any of that
history_monk: (Default)
[personal profile] history_monk
The former Conservative MP Matt Hancock was the UK's Secretary of State for Health and Social Care 2019-21 and thus responsible for much of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As one would expect, he has been called to give evidence to the enquiry into the handling of the pandemic. Two issues have been quite controversial:
  • One was awarding many valuable contracts for vitally needed supplies and equipment to Conservative Party members with no obvious capability to fulfil them, without and transparency. That piece of corruption will be held against the Conservative Party for a very long time. He wasn't responsible for all of that: the entire Cabinet were involved. 
  • The other was the decision to discharge many hospital patients into care homes for the elderly without testing them for COVID-19. That was his decision, and it resulted in the residents of those care homes being placed at very high risk of infection. And being elderly and frail enough to require care home residence, a great many of them died.       
This week at the enquiry, he was questioned by lawyers for a bereaved families group. It rapidly became clear that his claim of protective measures for the care home residents was pure fiction. He claimed that nobody cared, apart from campaign groups. 

That's a degree of selfishness fully consistent with his decision to use social distancing to undertake an extra-marital affair with one of his senior staff. That forced him to resign as Health Secretary, and he left parliament voluntarily at the last election. However, he's not yet been held to account for his terrible, heartless decisions while in charge of the nations' health.

More details and donations here.

Photo cross-post

Jul. 4th, 2025 02:49 am
andrewducker: (Default)
[personal profile] andrewducker


Got halfway to the bus stop to go to the pool and realised I didn't have my shoulder bag. Sprinted home, got it, and made it to the bus.

Got off the bus at the other end, realised Sophia's bag didn't have her swimming costume in it. Got a bus home, grabbed it, now in a taxi.

Fingers crossed that nothing else comes between me and drop-off and work!
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

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