Gromnir

wrath of the righteous, unlike many premade pnp adventures, contemplated companion npcs who would join your party, albeit at a somewhat diminished level. the pnp ap contemplated romances with the companions and bisexual were arguable the default option. yeah, more than a few o' the companions in owlcat's wotr are unique to the crpg, but we would be surprised if paizo didn't have input on the choice o' romance preferences o' companions. for those familiar with the wotr ap, the romance preferences o' companions being inclusive as 'posed to exclusive is predictable. from our pov, companion romances in crpgs is always terrible. always. as long as such is kept optional and tangential, am not concerned. am finding weird how invested is people with not just the romances but the gender preferences. *shrug* optional and tangential, so who cares? is not as if owlcat invested a whole lotta effort into the writing aspect o' kingmaker, so is not as if adding romance options is some kinda resource sink. whatever. have spent some effort doing the army management. heroes o' might and magic is an obvious inspiration. the interface is less intuitive than we would want-- took us a few long minutes o' frustration trying to figure out how to split units. am understanding there is less o' quest on a timer aspect to army management than were the case o' kingdom building in owlcat's previous effort, but am not certain how that is gonna work in wotr? you gain resources based on a timer, so... am too early into the army management stuff to offer some kinda definitive opinion. am a bit annoyed that our default tactic when fighting powerful melee units involves offering sacrificial single units to be destroyed while our archers decimate. have become extreme reliant on cleric and leader healing to restore unit strength before the end o' a battle, which feels like cheese. am having difficulty impacting morale to any degree. etc. will offer more meaningful feedback when we have more experience. we will note the combat and army management doesn't appear bugged to any significant degree. like it or hate it, army management is working as intended. as we play more, we notice more bugs, and a few is irksome. having to toggle rapid shot is a pain to get the correct number o' attacks as we default to a single attack for our zen archer/sanctified slayer unless we do so. we took an animal companion as part o' our priestly domain, but the animal companion archetype did not carry over from animal companion generation to actual gameplay. maybe not a bug, but am having nowhere to purchase cold iron arrows/bolts early in chap 2, so archery value is diminished. skalds is busted every which way with the inability to apply keening spells or choose bard specific feats as well as archetypes defaulting to vanilla skald post character generation. pc slayers is similar busted when attempting to choose feats. mythic stuff is borked as often as not. can't get a second spirit for our spirit shaman companion, 'cause that option don't work. impossible domain is indeed appropriate named as is impossible for a cleric to add a third. etc. nevertheless, the bugs is still fewer in number and severity than expected and the overall stability o' the game is excellent. loading times is satisfactory and nowhere near as bad as were kingmaker when it were released. is not a deep rpg experience so far, and our pre-knowledge o' the ap perhaps undercuts some o' the impact pivotal events, but am not thinking fans o' kingmaker were looking for depth so much as breadth. kingmaker offered a huge range o' character development and gameplay options and wotr expands the menu o' choices. wotr is exceeding expectations so far. as an aside, one o' the recent developer gameplay streams was a h00t. we didn't watch anywhere near seven hours, but we wanted to. HA! Good fun!

can't keep your eye on the ball, eh? the post you quoted included our observation that the trial were political and the law were a side show aspect. the conclusion were never in doubt. trump's acquittal were a pyrrhic victory. is unclear how devastating to the republicans were the loss. depending on how the covid and economic situation is the next couple years will be more significant than the trump trial, but again, the point o' the trial were never to change hearts and minds o' the mob. there were never any chance 17 republicans would do the right thing if the evidence warranted a conviction. decisions to acquit were made before the trial started. the acquittal were never in doubt. is why in an earlier post we observed how matt gaetz would actual be a superior choice for trump's defense 'cause were never 'bought lawyering. the point o' the trial were to make trump actions appear indefensible to some % o' voting republicans and then have republican senators need defend the indefensible. didn't need convince a large % o' republicans neither. were never gonna change the minds o' the base or other gibbering maniacs we all have come to know these past +4 years; you all know who you are. the aim were to change the pov o' a small percentage o' republicans and based on the recent election which trump lost, at least a few republicans with college educations were open to changing their minds. gonna remind you and others that enough republicans had recent chosen not-trump and that were before the chaos at the Capitol on january 6. the goal o' the trial for democrats were to cement for many republicans that they made the correct choice not voting for trump in 2020 and to make certain republicans in washington had to announce their approval or disavowal o' trump. the incompetence o' trump lawyers were clear to most, but it never needed be obvious to all. not apparent to skarp_one? big shock, eh? lindsey graham, in spite o' being spineless, were correct on one point. the trial and the excuses made for defending the indefensible has a serious chance o' haunting republicans in the years to come. the republican party is divided and the trial forced republicans to polarize further, which will make it more difficult to win in 2022. not impossible by any stretch. again, covid and the economy will be much bigger issues. ... however, am gonna admit call trump's acquittal "pyrrhic" is unfair... to pyrrhus. the greek general were a brilliant battlefield commander. hannibal included pyrrhus in his extreme short list o' the greatest military commanders in history: alexander, pyrrhus, himself. the field general efforts o' trump's lawyers do not make one think o' hannibal. maybe gideon pillow? gomer pyle perhaps? HA! Good Fun! ps we mentioned pillow with a certain self-aware irony 'cause as incompetent as he were on the battlefield, am understanding he had some success as an attorney after the civil war. perhaps pillow were a slip-and-fall lawyer? dunno.

have avoided saying anything 'bout the legal aspects o' the senate trial 'cause is a political trial and not legal. senate makes the rules. pundits complaining 'bout hearsay and even Constitutionality o' the trial is misguided as the senate trials is not a federal civil or criminal trial. nevertheless, when trump's lawyer, michael van der veen, claimed trump knew nothing o' the danger pence faced at the Capitol on january 6, we had an "oh fudge" moment. why would he do that? republican senators knew what happened and didn't care. apparently pence didn't care in any meaningful way that trump were tweeting criticisms o' pence while the attacks were in full swing. gonna now start discovery? is possible an agreement where certain facts previous uncontroversial is agreed to as stipulated and entered into the record. otherwise... HA! Good Fun! ps

our first major bug would be annoying if this weren't a beta. at the end of the first chapter, the player is required to makes choices which correspond with mythic paths and alignments. choose "good" is a dead-end... which could be owlcat commentary. at the very least, a couple of the "lawful" options were viable. am s'posing we will try a bit o' wotr army management in the coming days. as an aside, am not certain how xp is generated, but our 4-man party is having little more xp than our 6-man party does. am recalling in kingmaker we took fewer party members and level'd a bit quicker, but am noticing almost negligible xp variance depending on party size. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

finally started playing the beta. for a beta it is pretty solid. haven't experienced a crash in something approaching fifteen hours o' gaming... though admitted a significant % o' our fifteen hours were spent at the character generation screen. is a whole lotta minor bugs, but most is simple math errors or the kinda thing which disappears after a reload. example: our zen archer is not benefiting from the correct ac bonus for wisdom... at least not always. am not sure what is the trigger as isn't an ability or equipment issue. am also losing extra attack from flurry unless we activate and then deactivate rapid shot ability. is minor annoyances at this point. am about to choose our inquisitor class, but is difficult from the character generation screen to tell exactly how faith hunter is implemented. might take sanctified slayer this time. have been playing exclusive tb. a few larger battles is rather time consuming in tb, but am otherwise satisfied with tb in general. we do not have the gnome or the half-succubus, but the other companions is having useful stat distributions and classes. sure, we wish there were a respec function, but am having minor quibbles over stats and abilities. whatever problems we have with the game is expected. wotr is a munchkiny pathfinder adventure, so fact we gotta ultra-specialize is kinda part o' the game dna and there nothing owlcat were gonna do to change the fundamental nature o' the ruleset. we haven't finished what would be the conclusion o' the first ap module, so we do not have an army; can't say whether army management is better or worse than kingmaker kingdom building. am expecting disappointment from the army, so anything less than rage inducing frustration will be an improvement compared to our experience from the previous title. am not near as angry as dennis green, but if you played kingmaker, wotr is gonna be what you thought it would be. good news is that for a beta, wotr is a solid piece o' work and so far we would say it looks like the game needs fine tuning as 'posed to major fixes. when is game s'posed to be released? am having no idea as to release as we never bothered to look for such info. that said, if you told us the game were gonna be released in a few months, we would be neither shocked or worried. HA! Good Fun!

made a late breakfast. guess it kinda looked like eggs benedict, but not. prepared a béchamel with cheddar, manchego and half-and-half 'cause we looked in the refrigerator and those items spoke to us. we have good bacon so we cooked up three thick cut pieces. drained off most o' the bacon grease and then fried two eggs using these little egg ring thingies which had been gifted to us some time past but we had never bothered to use. toasted an english muffin and buttered... am not certain why we buttered the muffin other than some weird reflex. unnecessary. anywho, we placed a piece o' bacon (well, two halves o' a piece) on each muffin half and then added a fried egg which were nice and crispy from the bacon grease. topped off our muffin, bacon and egg stacks with something 'tween a drizzle and a pour o' our béchamel. closer to a pour if am being honest. after tasting we decided it needed some pepper. for those paying particular close attention, there is an unaccounted piece o' bacon. am knowing it ain't the most healthy food for dogs, but is no way possible for Gromnir to cook bacon w/o providing the dogs with a taste. as the bacon sizzles in the pan, the pooches stare at us, drooling and hopeful. hard stares. pleading stares. third piece o' bacon were to keep the dogs from shanking us in our sleep if we didn't give 'em a bit. food was ok. dogs thought it were excellent and are no doubt looking forward to us making in the future. however, the dogs eat deer p00p and rotting animal carcasses with gusto if they get the opportunity to partake, so their gastronomical insights is ordinarily ignored. side benefit: our house smells like bacon. HA! Good Fun!

understatement. unless china invents cinema-grade time travel, they got what appears to be a massive and insurmountable population problem o' their own making. if china were gonna implement decades-long draconian population control to stave off their recurring famine problems, they shoulda' gone with logan's run life clocks and carousel. 'course is understandable why the old men running the chinese communist party didn't consider carousel. HA! Good Fun!

on friday afternoon we finally got our first shingles vaccination. coulda' been worse. nine hours after receiving the shot, we suffered 'bout six hours o' terrible shivering and a rather significant headache which has only just begun to diminish. we were told side effects could last 2-3 days, so am guessing we were lucky. don't feel lucky. two-to-six months from now we get a second shot. am so looking forward to it. HA! Good Fun!

well, they are trying her in juvenile court, and no doubt her defense will be along the lines o' what you suggest; that she was just doing what she was told to do. has never been a particular strong defense, but the fact she were a kid will no doubt be a significant factor. am not bothered that a secretary would be deemed complicit for knowing aiding in mass murder. the thing is, am wondering how far down the proximate cause chain justice demands we take this. how many germans knew? how many germans had some small role which contributed to the attempted extermination o' a minority population? is probable that the guy delivering bread or milk in 1944 to stutthof knew what were happening to jews, poles, russians and others. why wasn't he put on trial? were the milkman's contribution so fundamental different from the secretary? how do we distinguish the stutthof milkman from the secretary? is doubtful the milkman and the secretary gets put on trial in the days immediate following the war even if there were strong evidence which showed they were knowing exact what were happening in stutthof. how many delivery people and craftsman who contributed to the maintenance o' stutthof knew? is always civilian contractors and workers at such facilities. can't help but wonder how much o' this is political theatre. decades removed from events, prosecutors get a chance to show they is still aware and sensitive? again, am actual ok with finding a seventeen-year-old to be complicit if the evidence supports. the thing is, if she is guilty, then so were a whole lotta other people and no effort were made to prosecute 'em. lack o' prosecution o' the multitudes does not make the secretary less complicit, but it severe undermines fundamental notions o' justice if she gets singled out so temporal remote from actual events. and don't get us started on the pogroms from before the war, and the dirty euro secret regarding the large number o' jews quiet murdered by local populations after they were liberated from the nazi camps. is a whole lotta complicit. is mighty convenient for 2021 populations to single out the nazis as the villains when is fact the nazis neither started nor finished the murder. HA! Good Fun!

warning: potential unsettling video

we fully support mr. navarro's suggestion. am thinking this is a fantastic idea. a trump defense should be directed by an individual with a dubious ethical code who understands that all you need to convince the trump base o' anything they already wanna believe is volume and a bit o' gaslighting. as long as the republican party is pandering to the trump base, sound legal representation is a waste. what trump needs is an infernal carnival barker. matt gaetz were born for the role. HA! Good Fun!

our approval o' pathfinder: kingmaker were marginal given a few o' the perpetual bugs, our dissatisfaction with 3.5 legacy dnd, and our frustration with the horrible kingdom building mechanic. the ap (adventure path) wotr is based 'pon were also not a fave for us, although the first two adventures weren't bad. tragic, the ap descended into stoopid right quick after those initial offerings. our ambivalent approval were not enough to keep us from backing a tier which included beta access. go figure. we recognized the only potential games we would be playing in early 2021 were betas for bg3 and wotr. beggars and choosers. whatever. haven't managed to steel our self enough to actual play the wotr beta, but am certain to try out a zen archer/inquisitor at some point. likely a dwarf. is too bad for shady that owlcat went with wotr, 'cause carrion crown were not only a fantastic ap (top three out o' ~ two dozen in our estimation) but it were filled with gothic stuff. HA! Good Fun!

agree, but as odd as it seems, is not unreasonable if you ignore the lessons o' history. if you are nevada, how do you compete with texas and their tax friendly scheme? looking ahead, how do you compete with shanghai? sure, the problems won't start with a self-contained future intel campus in sparks, nevada, or at least it won't be noticeable. the stem employees got too much personal leverage and automation will increasingly handle the grunt work, but there will be less educated employees being exploited amazon style. all those menial job folks working in the company towns/counties who is insta interchangeable with thousands o' other unemployed service workers will be having zero power. count on big business to look out for such persons? 'course tech is looking ahead. problem is too few is looking behind. HA! Good Fun!

y'know, if at least the company town stuff were the realm o' science fiction you might be able to excuse nevada. unfortunate, multiple somebodies didn't pay attention in class when teachers were talking 'bout the late 19th and early 20th century coal wars. teddy roosevelt had to step in in 1902(?) to stop what looked like a looming class war. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/minewars-coalcamps/ there were kinda a sea change with the passage o' the national industrial recovery act o' 1933, which made massive unionization efforts possible. even so, it took more than a decade for the government to dismantle the worst excesses made possible by the company town model. am knowing this stuff were 100 years in the past, but the kinda necromantic stoopid by nevada is exact why we teach history in schools, no? HA! Good Fun!

am not sure if such is a fair description, but from a practical pov it probable don't make a difference if democrats know how to plan strategic and tactical. the issue we see is that you are dealing with a polarized "they." democrats and republicans is suffering similar problems insofar as their parties is not unified. understatement. am unable to tell you what is core republican values as o' today and is not much better for democrats. pelosi, schiff and schumer, to name a few, is not dumb, but you got a deeply divided caucus and is tough to draw from sun tzu and clausewitz when every decision is a compromise 'tween wildly disparate pov. am recalling a minivan our folks bought when we were in high school. both parents hated that van. the reason they bought the damn minivan is precise 'cause they both disliked it. mom and dad couldn't agree to purchase a vehicle one o' 'em liked, so they purchased a vehicle neither liked but were nevertheless functional... cause that were a fair resolution? 2021 democrats is far less simpatico than were our parents, so am thinking for the near future we gotta assume democrat compromises is gonna continue to be fugly. and as we noted, is as bad and likely worse for republicans. mitch may be an ammonal opportunist, but he ain't stupid. kevin mccarthy may not be the historic smartest minority leader o' the house (again with the understatement) but he ain't as much o' a fool as circumstances make him appear to be. 145 house republicans in a secret ballot voted to not move against liz cheney in spite o' very public calls from the mouthy trumpers in Congress to remove her from a leadership role. converse, public votes to impeach trump after the attack at the capitol garners less than a dozen. the republican caucus is painful divided and endemic cowardice/pragmatism has 'em saying stuff public which many clear do not believe out o' fear o' antagonizing the base. house members, far more than senators, is constant running for reelection. democracy is ugly even if is better than the alternatives. HA! Good Fun!

hmmm. also sprach zarathustra were what came to mind. HA! Good Fun!

not that anybody asked our opinion, but am against punishing marjorie taylor greene by a house vote. mtg is a nut and a dangerous nut at that. am not gonna run down the list o' all the lies she has told... too many. mtg should not be a member o' Congress, but she ain't the first dangerous loon we has had as a member o' the house o' representatives or senate, and she won't be the last. so assume mtg is kicked off o' Congressional committees (or worse) by democrat votes and ask selves what happens when republicans win back the house. under harry reid and obama, democrats removed filibuster rules for Presidential appointments save for SCOTUS. sure enough, when the republicans got control o' senate and had a republican President, they went crazy with appointments, many o' whom were demonstrably unqualified. didn't stop there neither as the SCOTUS filibuster rules were changed. the reason you got acb on the Court is 'cause democrats refused to consider the consequences o' changes to filibuster. predictable. were all so predictable. similar predictable is republicans looking for payback if mgt is punished. mtg deserves punishment. republicans shoulda' done so. however, what is arguable a reasonable and justified action by Congress to punish a member for behavior unbecoming a member o' the House needs be viewed from a perspective two, four or six years in the future. consider that ilhan omar and rashida tlaib has made comments which were at best ill-advised and arguable bigoted. tell us mtg comments ain't same as squad member nuttery and you are preaching to the choir, but when the opposition party gets control, they ain't gonna be concerned with fairness. btw, am not suggesting members o' Congress should be free to say and do anything w/o any possibility o' punishment by the house or senate. however, am not gonna chase anybody down the proverbial rabbit hole. Congress has had too many foolish, unhinged and even dangerous members. the thing is, the behaviour being punished need be so egregious that we ain't having this discussion. mtg deserves punishment, but if you doubt for even an instant the inevitable day o' reckoning once republicans take back the house, you are being as obtuse as all those qanon dopes. convince us mtg should be given the option o' "crossing the desert" the entire distance 'tween the capitol and wh if she wanna keep her office and committee seats? you win. we agree. unfortunate, in a few short years, is gonna be republicans with the paddles and are you telling us you are comfortable with relying on their restraint and wisdom? HA! Good Fun!

no way is there enough votes, and am ok with that. yeah, after january 6 am thinking guys like lindsey graham were shocked by how much support trump retained. were after the capitol were attacked. no doubt many republican senators did some quick polling and discovered that a significant % o' republicans were still devoted to the Stop The Steal narrative and to trump personal. fine. democrats managers should make their case. there will be a record o' who stood with trump in spite o' fact a cop died and many people were injured while insurrectionists broke into the Capitol, some o' whom were calling for aoc, pelosi and mike pence to be murdered. not enough votes? fine. the senators who once again vote transactional instead o' choosing to vote integrity will face a reckoning... maybe. probable not immediate. more significant, as we keep pointing out, the post mortem from the Presidential election reveals a significant % o' the republican party doesn't approve o' trump. republicans made gains in the House, but trump lost. the reason georgia lost two republican senators is in large part due to trump. force republicans to effective swear fealty to trump keeps the trump base happy, but is gonna make situation a whole lot tougher for any republican who needs educated and suburban republicans to win an reelection. a senate trial where as much trump ugly as possible is revealed daily/nightly while republicans resort to strained procedural arguments to take cover from facing reality makes it more difficult for the complicit republicans to later disavow trump when is clear he is doing more harm than good for the party. the trial won't result in a conviction. what the trial will do is make it more difficult for those considerable number o' suburban republicans to vote for a trump candidate. doesn't need be 50% of republicans. doesn't need be 20% of republicans. particular for national elections like Presidency, the bannon line is enough. a trial forces republicans to public stand with marjorie taylor greene and trump. good. you will continue to see business reduce republican funding efforts and you will have more than enough suburban republicans become actual independents to undermine future republican voting efforts which go beyond county levels. HA! Good Fun!

is about political appointees. from our pov, show emails from previous administration officials stating that the new administration would honor parental leave o' political appointees is hilarious, but if we need explain the joke it is ruined. of all people, gd siding with political appointees who knew they could/would be having their jobs end january 20, 2021 and attempting to suck on the government teat after termination is curious... or maybe not. gonna lose your TANSTAAFL cred. this were not a hidden problem. political appointees pretending as if they were caught unawares that they would lose all benefits and privileges with a change in administrations? these individuals had a whole lotta time to prepare before january 20, 2021, and rely on email correspondence from previous administration officials as if it grants some kinda authority or restitution claim is straining credulity. yeah, anybody recent terminated from their job may sympathize. is possible anybody who has lost health coverage benefits might somehow sympathize... we s'pose. whatever. is not as if wh gardeners or service personnel is losing benefits. we are talking political appointees who will not be fulfilling the post parental leave obligation for obvious reasons. again TANSTAAFL. call us cold, but to paraphrase, flow my tears, the trump appointee said. HA! Good Fun! ps change situation. assume for a sec that amy klobuchar or corey booker becomes President after biden (am not liking k. harris, so let's not even pretend she is next Prez) and a bunch o' former biden political appointees is given all kinda benefits after january 2025. we would be a bit annoyed. am suspecting gd would be annoyed. President booker, with no intention o' bringing the biden appointees into his new administration, nevertheless extends benefits 'cause the democrats are just one big happy family... or somesuch. screw that.

if you haven't seen paths of glory, we recommend... is another kubrick and kirk douglas classic. warning: is not as cheerful and sunny as spartacus. HA! Good Fun!

‘Vladimir the Poisoner’ A translation of Alexey Navalny’s speech in court on February 2 The main thing in this whole trial isn’t what happens to me. Locking me up isn’t difficult. What matters most is why this is happening. This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. They’re imprisoning one person to frighten millions. We’ve got 20 million people living below the poverty line. We have tens of millions of people living without the slightest prospects for the future. Life is bearable in Moscow, but travel 100 kilometers in any direction and everything’s a mess. Our whole country is living in this mess, without the slightest prospects, earning 20,000 rubles [$265] a month. And they’re all silent; they try to shut people up with these show trials. Lock up this one to scare millions more. One person takes to the streets and they lock up another five people to scare 15 million more.

people forget what it were like when nixon resigned. republican Congressmen who were not loyal enough were punished by republican voters in the following election. one reason we had so few Congressmen condemn presidents clinton or trump is 'cause they learned from history. keep in mind, nixon were much more popular than trump. is gonna take a few years. Trump Destroyed Himself am knowing there is a few who keep on with the correlation fail, but trump lost suburban and educated white voters in numbers sufficient to negate fact trump increased republican voter turnout and did better with minorities in 2020 than he did in 2016. new automatic registration laws in a couple key states such as michigan and georgia (nevada were a battleground just added to the list) as well as disaffected republicans made the difference. is why so many threatened republican Congressman were elected in states/counties where trump did worse than the competition. reason we don't have a trump Presidency in 2021 is in large part due to the fact many republicans had enough o' trump. the plethora o' lawsuits trump faces is gonna be extreme public and the many annoyed republican suburbanites is gonna be appalled and indignant and pretend as if news o' trump corruption and deceit is revelatory. am s'posing quicker the nixon, the bloom will come off the rose. however, there is the trump base which has turned trumpism into a religion o' sorts and those folks will never admit they made a mistake. the hardcore will only further galvanize. HA! Good Fun! ps one thing to keep in mind is just how slow a few o' these trump lawsuits is gonna happen. for example, am assuming is three years before the trump tax stuff finally advances to a point where we see a trial. will be more than a few pundits at fox, newsmax and oan warning viewers that any rush to judgement is unfair. will be some time before we see the considerable number o' ambivalent republicans admit their mistake.

https://theins.ru/news/239080 reporter arrested by police and having a bag placed over her head were threatened with electroshock if she did not surrender her phone password.

Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency Flynn went berserk. The former three-star general, whom Trump had fired as his first national security adviser after he was caught lying to the FBI (and later pardoned), stood up and turned from the Resolute Desk to face Herschmann. "You're quitting! You're a quitter! You're not fighting!” he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: "Sir, we need fighters." Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell's pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. "All you do is promise, but never deliver," he said to her sharply. Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles. Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the **** do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down. ... is gonna take years before those who voted for trump a second time will realize (and forbear they admit) just how fortunate is america that trump failed to be reelected. HA! Good Fun!