Alright, its been a truly chaotic fortnight, that is no lie.

Some big shit went down, but this isn't about that.
More will come on that, but if you want to get up to speed then click here.
We have seen a huge spike in numbers, mod-mail has gone into over-drive with ''why was my comment/post deleted'' Whining, Auto-mod has been taking no prisoners and there are bans and bets a plenty.......

New levels of degeneracy have been reached, its all catalogued for you below.
Noobs read these posts carefully, when you say dumb shit we hold you accountable to following through on dumb shit or you don't get to play in the cesspool anymore....

We have ALOT of shit to get through, so dive in and then we can fuck off to enjoy the weekend....

Also just a friendly reminder:
make a bet?
Tag a Mod
Don't tag Auto-Mod though, bitch is cranky......

HIGHLIGHTS AND UPDATES

- The media jackals have been sniffing around again and have been in contact with the Mods.
We see the chaos everywhere, so Mods have made our OFFICIAL RESPONSE: BOOMER AND AUTIST VERSIONS public so y'all are up to speed.

- Our Euro-Trash connection, u/WolfofAnarchy has made a 500K YOLO on IBG.
After a comprehensive DD piece posted a while ago, user has back their Autism in for early retirement and free flowing tendies.

- Purveyor of the finest Beverages, u/SuntoryBeverage has jumped on the big boy YOLO train as well, punting 300K into MEP.
They did however, post up a DD piece on said YOLO prior, another glowing example of putting your money into whatever you gleaned and copy/pasted from Hot crapper. (jokes..... it was a decent write up)

- u/bshezza has drunk the kool-aid, making made a $350,000 YOLO on TYR.
There is a bet attached here, so more on this below...

- u/theoriginaluser01 has made a big boy YOLO into RAC, rounding out the seriously large plays with a ''bio-tech speccie buy out from big pharma'' hay-maker.

- u/DareBottle has finally explained their asx_bot in detail.
This is actually a really interesting/in-depth look at our collective Autism from the 'boy and his bot' and well worth a read.

- u/BOTANIXtoTENDOLLA had a truly magnificent episode during their Meltdown over GME. We have been keeping a tight leash on these posts, but this one was truly a unique rant and demanded to be preserved.
Caution, reading their post may cause severe haemorrhaging......

- u/timbuckley66 has donated $200 to the Autists supporting Z1P fund. Enjoy that shiny new flair young Timmy....

NEW BETS

- u/24caratcommodes made a bet with the mods that BBUS would open at $1.70 or higher after the great Red Monday Open.
Credit to this user for developing a bear thesis that they posted up on Big Daddy sub (got deleted), but the theory was blown apart by a nice shrek-coloured dildo the next morning courtesy of the split personality exchange we all know and love.
Perhaps they should have invested in DLC instead....

- u/sweatygooche has made a bet with the mods, claiming that the indefinitely stalled NVA rocket will take off too 20c by the end of February or its ban time.
Maybe this is the spark needed to ignite said stalled rocket, or maybe the mighty Tom will look unfavorably upon the lack of, ahem, tribute......

- u/limputg has gotten on board with the body hair bets, stating that 4DS trades at 30c by the end of feb or they will submit a film of eating their own pubes.
It baffles Mods as to why this phenomenon has caught on here, but hey if it keeps us entertained then go crazy.....

- Not to be outdone in the consumption of bodily refuse, u/jamesnangs has upped to ante and has gone on the record that JAT will touch 2.5c by the end of Monday 8th or they will eat their own shit.
We don't know why, we just know that is their wish.
And the market provided opportunity for you to act out your pervy scat fetish, yet you were nowhere to be found....
Folks, can you guess what comes Next?????????

- u/tuzymandias got in on the act as well, promising that if Z1P hit $10 on Monday they would swallow a sweet load.
Well......... here is the link.
I still feel dirty....

- Sub veteran and owner of the ASX_Bets most coveted flair, u/kooksy_monster has made a pact to memorialize their AVA diamond hands by getting some Ink when AVA hits $1.
We will not need to follow our favorite dole bludger up on this claim, mods know they are an autist with a code and shall post up if the mark is hit.

- u/bshezza was freed from ban captivity after they made a $350,000 YOLO on TYR.
There is a bet attached, u/oxymoreme has bet against the shezz, claiming that for every 1% up till the end of FEB they will take a 1 week ban.
We enjoy an accumulative ban, its like compound interest, Scotty would be so proud.....

- u/luner124 made the commitment to order custom ASXBETS number plates if LKE finished green on Wed Feb 5th.
Let the record show that whilst questionable bodily fluid tributes seem to make green candles, custom number plates seems to be the recipe for red ones, as LKE continued on its merry way down that day....
You'll have to pimp your ride with some alternative bling...........

- u/Evilshogun and u/xxt3nt4c10n have a bet running on LKE.
One users likes the LKE, the other no likely the LKE, someone is getting a ban if it misses or hits the 40c mark by Friday 12th, that's all we really need to keep in our short attention span.

- As far as we can tell, u/1stPostISwear has missed the 1st post on their convoluted double bet with BRN.
This was a fucked up scenario for Mods to follow, but u/jbent has provided you all with a little video containing just the right amount of spite to try and send their fellow conspirator packing......
BUT WAIT!!!
u/jbent09 is in mourning this weekend.
The scintillating, raw, oddly sexually charged chemistry between these 2 degenerates has been strangely compelling, but u/1stPostISwear has pulled the ultimate ghosting, deleting their entire reddit account and vacating the reddit universe.
Was this a jilted love story gone wrong?
Was it knowing they had fucked up with the bet?
was it the pressure of becoming another failed Prophet?
All we know is that when you leave the table before the end of the game, you lose it all.
So u/1stPostISwear will be receiving a Perma-Ban, albeit a theoretical one...

Love, it appears, is fickle indeed.

- u/nomadnobad has jumped on the LKE train, with a $1 by Easter or Ban bet.
Train is currently boarding, a few have purchased tickets to feast on tendies or bust in the dining car.

- u/phishbaron and u/nundee have a bet running on RNT. The loser of this bet has agreed to donate $1K to charity and post proof on the sub.
There will be no banning here, unless there is a failure to come through then there will be a fucking lot of banning. Seriously though, this reminds me of the Salty Toppings Fight card charity bets we ran a few months ago, hats off lads for doing the good thing....

BANS

- u/itsdankreddit has finally lost a ban bet on DW8. For the record, this use has won every bet up until now so whilst its an impressive ride for the cycling trader, it had to close out sometime.

- u/markz91 has been banned for 6 months after a coward gains post drew the ire of some of our more attentive users.
Baby Mod u/mcfucking asked for further proof of the claim and the user has been conspicuously absent since then....
We take our gains seriously people, make a claim and don't back it up at your peril......

- u/Beavoir was banned for 1 month after calling out the hairy bear, only to find the bear had out-stonked them and gone temporarily bull.

- u/DareBottle comes in with their second mention in the post, but this one is for a ban after PEN failed to reach 20c. enjoy the month off, that bot better be predicting tendies for all upon your return.

- u/MS_Travels has been banned for failing to come good on a proof or ban.
Flog.

- u/drag0nb0at, u/ASXrockets69420, u/bruinjack, u/snitchles007, were all banned for 3 months after various 'can ASX_Bets organise a short squeeze' posts.

- u/ssayrus has received a Perma-Ban for continually spamming Auto Mod with MYR pump posts and comments.

- u/Trader786 has also received a Perma-Ban for the same offence

- u/Dependent_Will_5798 has been banned for shilling a silver pump website repeatedly. I mean seriously...........

- u/redlegs1123 has been banished for 3 months after betting that GME would close below 50 the week after the rally. At least he doesn't have to read posts from retards anymore.

- u/Maj11k has been banned for 3 months for an attempted short squeeze call to arms.
User seriously needs to learn what the % actually means on shorts.........

- u/Xsouleater and u/jarfour offered themselves as sacrifices to the random ban length act for survey posts, earning a 64 day and a 128 day holiday respectively.
However, we really needed to flag a special shout out to u/NezyReddit, whose first post on the sub earnt them a 1024 day ban in accordance with the survey post exponential ban length program.
Mods thought that was epic, but then u/ItsSpyroTheBandicoot rolled the dice and levelled up to a 2048 day ban.
But, if you really want to indulge in this frenzy go and pay your respects here, this user is currently serving a 8192 day ban...

Exponential ban gains for the mods every-time someone rolls the dice, and u/phantom_hax0r loves them dice rollin games...

calls on bans people!!!

TLDR: Πρώτα για να αποκωδικοποιήσετε το πολύ μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα που δεν διαβάζει παίρνει μια λαμπερή νέα αίσθηση, βεβαιωθείτε ότι πληκτρολογείτε πρώτα στο σχόλιό σας

The Mox Opal Manifesto

Introduction
Forgive me, but this is a long one.
I would like to start by addressing that the topic of whether or not [[Mox Opal]] should be unbanned is contentious. If you disagree with anything I say, or I get something wrong in this post, feel free to rudely correct me in the comments.
On January 13, 2020 [[Mox Opal]] along with [[Oko, Thief of Crowns]] and [[Mycosynth Lattice]] were all banned. Wizards main justification for the bans was the prevalence of "base blue green decks using Urza," citing their "55 percent non mirror win rate."
At the time these decks, collectively known as whirza, utilized [[Arcum's Astrolabe]], Oko, and Urza to startling affect. Upon the banning of Opal and Oko, whirza as an archetype would effectively disappear from modern.
Opals banning did not just affect whirza however. Affinity would become unplayable, hardened scales would drop from 4% meta presence (via wayback machine on mtggoldfish) to only 0.8%. Lantern control would also leave the format, along with various miscellaneous decks that relied on Opal.
At its height in December of 2019, whirza only constituted a combined playrate of 6 percent (again, via wayback machine), over its 3 main versions.
Why Opal was The Wrong Choice
Anyone who played during that time remembers the disgusting levels of value Oko and [[Emry, Lurker of the Loch]] could generate to say nothing of Urza or Thopter sword. The deck was definitely way to strong.
Modern never got to see what whirza would have looked like without Oko and without Astrolabe. It is highly unlikely that the deck would have been nearly as dominant without either of these. Astrolabe, in my opinion, represents one of the greatest blunders wizards has ever made.
Oko's banning is self explanatory, and I wont touch on it much here, as the card should never have been printed in the first place.
Astrolabe is a one mana cantrip with three major upsides. First, it automatically fixes your mana, allowing 4 color decks to flourish and invalidating hate cards like [[Blood Moon]]. Second, it provides a source of snow mana allowing cards like [[Ice-Fang Coatl]] to be played more easily. Third, it is an artifact permanent, bringing with it all of the associated advantages. You get all this, in addition to another card into your hand simply for the price of playing some snow basics. [[Arcum's Astrolabe]], not [[Mox Opal]], was the enabler broke whirza. It could even be recurred with Emry and [[Goblin Engineer]] for disgusting results.
How do we know the Astrolabe was truly the problem and not Opal? Because of Uro snow. When whirza was banned, almost the exact same deck would appear in modern again, this time with Uro instead of Oko and no [[Mox Opal]] in sight. If you played against Uro snow, you can attest to the similarities: soul crushingly grindy games with the exact same culprits as before. And what was the enabler that both decks shared in common? Astrolabe.
Allow me to back up for a moment. I am not saying that Opal was not problematic in that context. My case is instead that Astrolabe makes Opal more powerful, and enabled more broken decks than Opal on its own.
The Modern format never got to see what Opal would look like without Astrolabe or Oko.
As a side note, Urza was not the problem either, because Uro Snow stopped playing Urza in exchange for [[Jace, the Mind Sculptor]] BEFORE ASTROLABE WAS BANNED.
The Case for Opal
Since Oko and Astrolabe are no longer in the format, the question of "should Opal be unbanned" really boils down to can Opal and Urza exist in the format at the same time? I think that the answer is yes. In fact, I think that the strongest decks with Opal likely wouldn't even run Urza.
The funny thing about Urza is that in the current modern format he is either too slow, too easy to remove, or not impactful enough upon entering. Most of Urza's value comes from long grindy games, but with how creature focused modern is right now, he really has trouble competing with the likes of Uro or Blitz/Prowess.
Why Now is The Correct Time to Bring Opal Back
Fast forward to today. Uro piles have come to dominate the format, making up a combined total of 14% of the meta, over 3 deck variations.
Though they use different shells, they remain weak to similar things. Fast combo decks, like Hammer Time and Prowess are usually the main answers, but when [[Colossus Hammer]] is your best bet at beating Uro, you know that something has gone wrong. Graveyard hate is another potential answer, but Omnath and Temur varieties can usually beat it post board simply by swinging with disruptive elements.
If Opal were to return to the format, uro would have 4 new decks that beat it. Affinity, Hardened Scales, [[Grinding Station]] and Lantern Control all beat Uro handedly with Opal.
Affinity is in all likelihood simply too fast for Uro to compete with. [[Inkmoth Nexus]] and [[Cranial Plating]] are difficult for Uro decks to deal with if [[Welding Jar]] is taken into account.
Hardened Scales with Opal is similarly quick and has the added bonus of being able to out grind Uro if it is not heavily disrupted.
Grinding station combo can win without interacting fairly consistently by turn 3. This deck is usually dealt with via graveyard hate, which Uro does not run much of in it's sideboards.
Lantern Control is by far the worst matchup for Uro. [[Surgical Extraction]] and heavy hand and draw disruption are things that Uro just cant deal with.
Would whirza come back? probably. The problem with whirza is that Uro grinds better, and it is essentially a less efficient version of that deck, albeit with some upsides. It would not be nearly the same whirza that terrorized modern before.
In my view, the reintroduction of Opal can only help meta diversity at this point.
One other thing to note, The modern format is virtually devoid of artifact decks currently. If you consider Hammer Time an artifact deck, really more of an equipment deck, than you only have hardened scales and Dice Factory (astral cornucopia shenanigans) to speak of in the top 50 decks of modern.
My Proposition
Could I be overlooking something here? In all likelihood I am overlooking many things, but luckily there exists a way to test if Opal could be unbanned safely: MTGO.
My proposition is that Opal is unbanned on MTGO for a month. Since there is no paper magic right now, it is the perfect testbed to see if Opal really is safe to unban. Worst case scenario, it's too strong and stays banned. If the London mulligan can be tested out on MTGO, why not and unbanning?
Honestly there is a lot more I could talk about, like the poor design decisions of recent sets and just how bad modern horizons was for the format. Another point is that the argument that "opal cramps design space" is stupid, and the whole 3feri design rabbit hole, but this post is getting long.
What do you think? Am I a dumbass for thinking that Opal could be Unbanned? Is there a glaring detail that I missed? Tell me in the comments.

Edit 1:
Since I have some time, I would like to address the power creep argument. Stop me if you have heard this before. "Its not what Opal would do to modern currently, but what broken decks might exist in a year or two." The answer is simple. It is wizards responsibility to not print cards that ruin formats. Astrolabe, Oko, and Urza were all mistakes. Hogaak was a mistake. And because wizards wants to sell packs, the "shiny new cards" often remain in the format for too long, public opinion sowers, and then wizards overreacts by banning both the problematic cards along with the enablers, taking unintended decks with them. Faithless looting is a perfect example of this same exact thing. "Faithless and Phoenix cant exist in the format at the same time" misses the point that PHOENIX SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN PRINTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Kickstarter Roundup: Feb 7 2021 | 20+ Ending Soon (including: Radlands) & 50+ New This Week (including: Maquis: 2nd Edition)

What this is:

This is a weekly, curated listing of Kickstarter board game projects that are either:

newly posted in the past 7 days, or
ending in the next 7 days (starting Feb 08) and have at least a fighting chance of being funded.

All board game projects meeting those criteria will automatically be included, no need to ask. (The occasional non-board game project may also sneak in!)
Expect new lists each Sunday sometime between midnight and noon PST.

Ending Soon

Project Info	Players	Backers	Min / Avg Pledge	Ends	Comments
Memory Decompression A solo survival miniatures gamebook. // Has raised $4,828 of $4,000 so far. (~121%) ☑	1	135	$24 / $36	Feb 08	kicktraq
1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight The long-awaited return of Mike Hutton's game of tricky track-building and questionable corporate direction // Has raised $126,512 of $20,000 so far. (~633%) ☑	2 - 4	1161	$75 / $109	Feb 09	kicktraq bgg
Big Bang Burgers This is a card game for people who are into Burgers, Sabotage and Explosions. // Has raised A$6,065 of A$2,500 so far. (~243%) ☑	2 - 6	101	$16 / A$60	Feb 10	kicktraq
The W.A.T.C.H. RPG A tabletop role-playing game in which the players become paranormal investigators and cryptid hunters. // Has raised $5,714 of $1,500 so far. (~381%) ☑	?	183	$10 / $31	Feb 11	kicktraq #rpg
Warbattle: a remote tabletop fantasy game A two-player tabletop fantasy battle game designed to be played remotely, designed by a 9 year old, his mom and his uncle. // Has raised $934 of $300 so far. (~311%) ☑	2	32	$10 / $29	Feb 11	kicktraq
COLOSTLE - A solo RPG - make100 Discover a world of mountains, valleys, seas and cities, all within the colossal impossible structure of a castle's rooms and corridors // Has raised £32,937 of £250 so far. (~13175%) ☑	1	1969	$9 / £17	Feb 11	kicktraq #rpg
Drink To Forget Relevant themed drinking games to keep your party engaged and laughing the entire night. 8 Categories and 110 cards! // Has raised $9,130 of $10,000 so far. (~91%)	3+	162	$25 / $56	Feb 11	kicktraq #lolwut
Pingyao: First Chinese Banks Pingyao: First Chinese Banks is an economic dice-as-workers placement game for 1-4 players and plays in 60-90 minutes. // Has raised $27,754 of $20,000 so far. (~139%) ☑	1 - 4	395	$55 / $70	Feb 11	kicktraq bgg
Dodoresque Jungle Fever - 2021 Edition It's a funny, fast paced Card Game about colorful Dodos including 12 Eco-friendly Miniatures. Your game for the whole family. // Has raised €592 of €500 so far. (~118%) ☑	2 - 4	32	$26 / €19	Feb 11	kicktraq bgg #take2 #newedition
XENOSCAPE - Extreme survival Sci-Fi RPG Are you ready to discover the secrets of Materia, a green and deadly raypunk world? // Has raised €19,465 of €5,000 so far. (~389%) ☑	?	244	$25 / €80	Feb 11	kicktraq #rpg
Snack Attack: The Card Game Hungry dinos everywhere! Fast-paced and easy-to-learn, steal snacks in this family-friendly, competitive card game for 2-4 players! // Has raised $5,926 of $6,000 so far. (~99%)	2 - 4	162	$20 / $37	Feb 11	kicktraq
BATTLE SQUARES: Trays and Bases Resin magnetic bases and movement trays for fantasy "rank and flank" wargames. // Has raised €2,633 of €500 so far. (~527%) ☑	-	29	$26 / €91	Feb 11	kicktraq #bling
Dice Dodgems - Make 100 A 30 minute, 2-4 player tabletop game that combines, dice, dodgems, strategic gameplay and tonnes of bouncing fun! // Has raised NZ$6,003 of NZ$6,500 so far. (~92%)	2 - 4	90	$40 / NZ$67	Feb 11	kicktraq
Tesla Science Race: The Board Game The Great Science Race: The Board Game Inspired By Nikola Tesla. // Has raised $3,482 of $3,333 so far. (~104%) ☑	2 - 4	41	$39 / $85	Feb 11	kicktraq bgg #take2
Kingdoms of the Deep Journey into the deep with our follow up to the award-winning Animal Kingdoms! // Has raised $16,027 of $12,300 so far. (~130%) ☑	2 - 6	322	$39 / $50	Feb 11	kicktraq bgg
Bunny Party at Maple Valley Play as a bunny furiously decorating for a party in this card game where two players win! evansgames.com/bunnyparty // Has raised $6,698 of $3,800 so far. (~176%) ☑	3 - 4	253	$15 / $26	Feb 11	kicktraq bgg
The Full Shanty! Card Game Can you bluff,blagg and tradeyour way to victory?Collect cards to make aFULL SHANTY.The Shanty bases card game. // Has raised £1,158 of £1,000 so far. (~116%) ☑	?	43	$17 / £27	Feb 12	kicktraq
Radlands ☢️ The game you will take with you through the apocalypse. // Has raised C$433439 of C$25000 so far. (~1734%) ☑	2	6427	$40 / C$67	Feb 12	kicktraq bgg
The Belgian Beers Race US edition The US localization of Belgian Beers Race board game. Race through Belgium, visiting breweries and enjoying beers. // Has raised $11,114 of $1,000 so far. (~1111%) ☑	2 - 4	112	$99 / $99	Feb 12	kicktraq bgg
Battle Builders Card Game A card game where you collect cards to make a weapon and take out your friends! // Has raised $667 of $150 so far. (~445%) ☑	3 - 8	29	$20 / $23	Feb 12	kicktraq
Wasted Wizards: A Party Game for Your Inner Nerd A board game that combines luck of the dice with classic drinking games. Get your friends together to have fun and slay the dragon. // Has raised $4,097 of $6,000 so far. (~68%)	2 - 6	51	$55 / $80	Feb 13	kicktraq

New This Week

Project Info	Players	Backers	Min / Avg Pledge	Ends	Comments
A Universal Truth - International Version The Strategic Game of Courtship. This is a gamer's game for 1-5 players, now with an international version! // Has raised $1,724 of $8,000 so far. (~22%)	1 - 5	28	$49 / $62	Mar 15	bgg #take2
All in one Board Game: A tactical and competitive board game consists of advance Tic Tac Toe, advance Paper Scissors Rock and much more playing ways. // Has raised HK$922 of HK$37,500 so far. (~2%)	varies	3	$15 / HK$307	Mar 02	#lolwut
Badland Wolves Guided by the law of Tooth & Claw, the wolves now fight for the crown. // Has raised $12,363 of $10,000 so far. (~124%) ☑	3 - 5	256	$30 / $48	Feb 26	bgg
Board game PLAYMATS! My kingdom for a PLAYMAT!Made of neoprene, ideal for board games or miniatures. // Has raised €2,947 of €1,900 so far. (~155%) ☑	-	77	$25 / €38	Feb 25	#bling
Brutal quest - A miniature narrative game A fantasy miniature narrative games based on the planet28 rule system. // Has raised £3,878 of £800 so far. (~485%) ☑	2	435	$11 / £9	Feb 19
Burger Builder Burger Builder is a fun new card game where players score points by building tasty food items using ingredient cards. // Has raised A$2,546 of A$2,500 so far. (~102%) ☑	?	50	$16 / A$51	Mar 06
Card-opoly A combination of monopoly and Cardistry condensed to the constraints of the 8x8 for a different feel // Has raised $121 of $100,000 so far. (~0%)	?	2	$100 / $61	Mar 05	#lolwut
Clinic Deluxe Extensions TWO new Extension boxes for Clinic Deluxe Edition containing more than 25 expansions for a level of simulation probably never reached i // Has raised $149,761 of $29,000 so far. (~516%) ☑	2 - 4	1290	$40 / $116	Feb 28	bgg #expansion
CoraQuest A cooperative and customisable dungeon crawl adventure for the whole family // Has raised £70,991 of £12,060 so far. (~589%) ☑	1 - 4	2443	$42 / £29	Feb 19	bgg
Core Worlds: Empires + Nemesis "Core Worlds: Empires" is the epic, standalone sequel to the "Core Worlds" card game. "Nemesis" is the original game's solo expansion. // Has raised $48,548 of $60,000 so far. (~81%)	1 - 4	515	$20 / $94	Feb 25	bgg #expansion
Crayne: Fractured Empire, a mission, a game, epic... Crayne: Fractured Empire is a high-fantasy epic deck-building card game with combat, high replay-ability and near limitless strategy! // Has raised A$5,121 of A$20,000 so far. (~26%)	1 - 6	64	$35 / A$80	Mar 04	bgg
Cult of the Deep 4-8 player hidden role dice game. You are a cultist, establishing your faction's rise to power as you fight over rituals and monsters. // Has raised $21,877 of $15,000 so far. (~146%) ☑	4 - 8	398	$35 / $55	Mar 03	bgg #take2
D-D 1944 A roll & write wargame that simulates parts of WWII. / Un wargame estilo roll & write que simula partes de la 2da. GM. // Has raised €535 of €100 so far. (~535%) ☑	1 - 3	106	$4 / €5	Feb 22	bgg
DEFCON 1 “War is not fatalistically inevitable.”—Nikita Khrushchev // Has raised €24,725 of €20,000 so far. (~124%) ☑	?	366	$85 / €68	Feb 23	bgg
Dodoresque Jungle Fever - 2021 Edition It's a funny, fast paced Card Game about colorful Dodos including 12 Eco-friendly Miniatures. Your game for the whole family. // Has raised €592 of €500 so far. (~118%) ☑	2 - 4	32	$26 / €19	Feb 11	bgg #take2 #newedition
DOOM MACHINE: A Mint Tin Card + Dice SOLO Game Can you destroy the ever-evolving DOOM MACHINE before humanity is lost? A pocket-sized pressure cooker fight for survival! // Has raised $24,577 of $2,500 so far. (~983%) ☑	1	838	$19 / $29	Mar 02	bgg
Dragons Fire Games: Gambler Gambler, a stand alone saloon brawl expansion to our flagship game Gunslinger. // Has raised $1,861 of $850 so far. (~219%) ☑	2 - 5	15	$15 / $124	Feb 28
Dragons Wild Quick Card Game of Mythical Creatures // Has raised NZ$1,396 of NZ$4,300 so far. (~32%)	2 - 6	34	$18 / NZ$41	Mar 06	bgg
Eggvolution Eggvolution is a strategy/random card game with the objective of destroying your friends. // Has raised €1,398 of €7,500 so far. (~19%)	2 - 6	41	$25 / €34	Mar 06
Embryo Machine — A Mecha Wargame A compact and accessible wargame from Japan for 2-6 players ft. fast-paced mecha combat across a modular grid-based battlefield. // Has raised $31,771 of $15,000 so far. (~212%) ☑	1 - 6	437	$45 / $73	Feb 18	bgg
Endangered World A Game of Protecting the Animal Kingdom // Has raised $652 of $12,000 so far. (~5%)	2 - 4	20	$34 / $33	Mar 09	bgg
ExeCUTEtion (Re-Launch) The Card Game of Adorable Capital Punishment // Has raised $3,292 of $20,000 so far. (~16%)	2 - 6	64	$24 / $51	Mar 07	#take2
Food Time Battle in Space A 2-4 player retro restaurant card game on the moon. Pushing your luck, risk-taking and planning are all required to earn 5 stars. // Has raised £1,357 of £4,000 so far. (~34%)	2 - 4	50	$21 / £27	Mar 02	bgg
Forbidden Psalm: Miniature gaming Inspired by Mörk Borg Table top miniature game. Inspired by and compatible with Mörk Borg. Rules light table top game.Miniature agnostic. Solo Play. Coop. VS // Has raised £2,870 of £300 so far. (~957%) ☑	1 - ?	104	$13 / £28	Feb 16
Games that Goblins Play. Playing Cards and New Games! Playing cards and rule book with new games. Goblin themed Zine! // Has raised $634 of $500 so far. (~127%) ☑	varies	30	$5 / $21	Feb 15
GRIDWARS: Age of Cyberpunk Complete Skirmish Wargame! 77+ Cyberpunk Sci-Fi STL Models! Terrain, Environment & Web App included! Put your miniatures into action! // Has raised €46,345 of €10,000 so far. (~463%) ☑	?	1052	$35 / €44	Feb 16
Jesters The Card Game - Let's Launch This Together Jesters is a fun, fast-paced new card game from the creator of the bestselling Quarantine The Card Game. // Has raised $759 of $8,000 so far. (~9%)	2 - 5	11	$20 / $69	Mar 04
King of Potato: A King-of-the-Hill Card Game A quick and strategic game where you compete to get the King. // Has raised $5,720 of $5,000 so far. (~114%) ☑	2 - 6	73	$19 / $78	Mar 01	bgg
Kingsfall: Guilds of Cendrenil An easy to learn 4X strategy board game set in a fantasy-lite world. // Has raised $3,169 of $16,000 so far. (~20%)	2 - 6	68	$40 / $47	Feb 23	bgg
Lift Every Voice and Meme - A Black Card Game Finally, a game for the culture, by the culture. // Has raised $2,720 of $10,000 so far. (~27%)	3 - 15	41	$30 / $66	Mar 04
MAO - Puzzle Card Game jeu de cartes // Has raised €43 of €200 so far. (~22%)	3 -10	3	$15 / €14	Mar 02
Maquis: 2nd Edition - Reprint with NEW Content! Maquis, the award-winning solo game of strategic worker placement, is getting reprinted with new missions! // Has raised $76,245 of $6,000 so far. (~1271%) ☑	1	3943	$5 / $19	Feb 25	bgg #newedition
Metro - Deluxe Big Box - City Edition 20th Anniversary of Metro! Time for new artwork, new expansions, and whole lot of component upgrades. // Has raised $75,800 of $10,000 so far. (~758%) ☑	1 - 6	605	$44 / $125	Feb 16	bgg #newedition
Moon Adventure, In a Grove and Dokojong - 月面探険・藪の中・ドコジャン 3 Games on Kickstarter by Oink Games - オインクゲームズの新作３つ // Has raised ¥9,623,468 of ¥1,000,000 so far. (~962%) ☑	varies	961	$62 / ¥10,014	Feb 26	bgg
Nations and Empires Use real historical leaders to develop your empires and conquer your opponents! // Has raised $1,097 of $15,000 so far. (~7%)	2 - 5	11	$45 / $100	Mar 05
Park Hero the game A board game based on traditional strategy games and America's national parks. // Has raised $1,069 of $14,500 so far. (~7%)	2 - 6	19	$55 / $56	Apr 02
Polysemous: The doors to other dimensions are open a chaotic, competitive, adventure board game filled with charm, chaos and betrayal. // Has raised A$3,854 of A$33,900 so far. (~11%)	2 - 6	41	$70 / A$94	Apr 01
Posthuman Saga & The Journey Home Expansion The Journey Home is the new chapter in Posthuman Saga, a post-apocalyptic, story-rich, strategic survival board game. // Has raised $48,087 of $20,000 so far. (~240%) ☑	1 - 4	953	$30 / $50	Feb 23	bgg #expansion #reprint
Ramming Robots! - a 1 - 2-player board game (PnP) A game where the more you ram your opponent's robot the more points you score! // Has raised $135 of $45 so far. (~300%) ☑	1 - 2	29	$3 / $5	Feb 28
Recarded A super fun party game // Has raised £696 of £4,500 so far. (~15%)	2 - 8	18	$35 / £39	Mar 05
Rock Paper Scissors: The Board Game A board game offering a new take on the classic rock paper scissors game! // Has raised €562 of €5,000 so far. (~11%)	2	18	$35 / €31	Mar 17
Royalty Assemble great nobles of the 15th century in a fun twist to this classic card game // Has raised $81 of $2,000 so far. (~4%)	2 - 6	5	$15 / $16	Mar 05
Space Weirdos A sci-fi skirmish wargame for whatever minis you have around. #zinequest // Has raised $921 of $100 so far. (~921%) ☑	2	124	$4 / $7	Feb 18
The Belgian Beers Race US edition The US localization of Belgian Beers Race board game. Race through Belgium, visiting breweries and enjoying beers. // Has raised $11,114 of $1,000 so far. (~1111%) ☑	2 - 4	112	$99 / $99	Feb 12	bgg
The Best Recycler Fun Card Game for sensitizing against recycling, and consume fairly. // Has raised C$1 of C$4537 so far. (~0%)	7+	1	$12 / C$1	Mar 21
The Elf Shelf High quality shelf solutions for your miniatures and dice. // Has raised $1,013 of $40 so far. (~2532%) ☑	-	14	$29 / $72	Feb 17	#bling
The Fisherman Board Game All the magic of fishing for big ocean Fishes, unknown species, life on a boat, the crew and the sea in a unique board game // Has raised €299 of €15,000 so far. (~2%)	2 - 4	5	$67 / €60	Mar 05	#take2
The Lighthouse At The Edge Of The Universe - Solo RPG A solo journalling game about running a lighthouse on the edge of the universe. // Has raised A$2,576 of A$270 so far. (~954%) ☑	1	202	$5 / A$13	Feb 18	#rpg
Time Editors: A time travel themed board game Save the past and control the use of time travel! // Has raised $13,277 of $55,600 so far. (~24%)	2 - 4	196	$59 / $68	Mar 04	bgg #take2
Toxic Takeover Board Game Dice duel and battle your way to home safe before the mad scientist takes over the world and you’re turned into a lil monster! Hurry! // Has raised $101 of $14,100 so far. (~1%)	2 - 5	3	$55 / $34	Mar 08
Truth, Dare or Spoon! A game of Truth of Dare with consequences you can taste! // Has raised $1,491 of $1,000 so far. (~149%) ☑	2 - 8	17	$39 / $88	Mar 04
Way of the Patriarchs Travel through the Land of Israel on the path of the forefathers - roll a die, collect cards, and move your piece through ancient sites // Has raised $3,007 of $8,000 so far. (~38%)	2 - 5	35	$40 / $86	Mar 13
Welcome to Sysifus Corp - A cut-throat corporate board game Race to the coveted promotion using office politics to backstab your fellow coworkers. // Has raised $13,218 of $15,000 so far. (~88%)	2 - 4	138	$40 / $96	Mar 04	bgg
WINNING SO MUCH FLIPPIN' FUN // Has raised $24 of $10 so far. (~240%) ☑	1 - 3	6	$5 / $4	Mar 04	#lolwut

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Footnotes

#hmm means that something about the project seems a little off. Buyer beware kinda thing.
#lolwut is reserved for projects that seem like copycat games or campaigns put together with little thought. Check 'em out for amusement.
#take tags are for projects that have been restarted for some reason, with the number indicating what iteration we're currently on.
Did I miss something? Particularly something new in the last 7 days or ending in the next 7 days? Let me know in the comments and I'll add it in.

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New Release 1st Impressions- Dune: Imperium, Beyond the Sun, Rococo Deluxe, Iwari, & Rajas of the Ganges: The Dice Charmers -- Bitewing Games

D100 Normal People doing Normal things

Just want a list of things that players can notice happening around them. I'm looking for things that are not plot relevant and do not require player intervention.
Edit: I'm starting to think Graham the Hobo deserves a separate list.
Standard medieval fantasy stuff

A child is throwing a tantrum in the street. One of their parents is standing nearby, pretending not to notice.
A patron is arguing with a shopkeeper over the price of an item that the shop doesn't sell.
A man is dancing in front of a group of elderly women. As he dances, the women will toss coins into his hat. Occasionally, one of the women will scoff and take some coins back.
Two Nobles are arguing the finer points of cockroach racing.
Neighbors are having a heated discussion about a noisy dog.
Graham the Hobo is performing an acrobatic pole dance.
Town guards are going door to door handing out flyers detailing changes to refuse disposal ordinances.
Three chickens are walking down the street stacked on top of each other.
A group of children are chasing a man with wooden swords. They are all laughing and shouting.
A wizard is seated across the table from an unnaturally large toad. The wizard is frantically flipping through several books.
A farmer is arguing with their cow. It seems the cow is unwilling to go where the farmer wants her to.
Drunken sailors are singing loudly from a tarven while the bar bouncer looks a them. ( u/Encrmites )
A town crier announces a gathering of the local religious group. ( u/Encrmites )
An unmarried couple walks hand in hand. Some passersby look at them and giggle. ( u/Encrmites )
A group of dock workers are team lifting a loaded wagon to reattach a broken wheel ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A woman occasionally checking a small paper as she window shops ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A young boy is selling newspapers on the corner. They aren’t selling well ( u/Pretzelbomber )
Two horse-drawn carts slowly maneuver past each other as their drivers argue ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A small circle of people are gathered around a pair of men locked in a serious match of arm wrestling ( u/Pretzelbomber )
A small child runs through a gathering of pigeons ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
A goose steals a gardener's trowel and is chased for their audacity. ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
Graham the Hobo stands off to the side of the town square holding an old parchment aloft with the words, "Need Money for Ale. Why lie?" ( u/atomicDaikaiju )
A small cadre of druids are working on the community garden, cracking jokes and taking their time. It could be a class on growing but you aren't sure from this distance. ( u/Milkslinger )
A blacksmith loudly scolding his apprentice for a minor mistake. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A very pregnant mother shopping while her son, tied to her by her apron-strings, stomps in every mud-puddle he can reach. The mother doesn't seem to notice how muddy the son has gotten her dress. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A tired looking prostitute on the walk outside the brothel smoking a pipe with a very bored expression on her face. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A loaded haywain blocking traffic outside an inn's stables, the old driver is arguing with city watch, "I ain't movin till (innkeep's name) boys unload my wagon. He paid me for this load, he's gettin it!" ( u/BlitzMcGee )
A down-on-the-heels entertainer sitting in the corner of the inn, muttering to himself as he attempts to compose a ballad. From the snippets the players can hear, the composition is not going well. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
An obviously drunk person in the stockade playing rhyming games with a group of kids gathered around his penitent post. ( u/BlitzMcGee )
While her father speaks with a street merchant, a little girl no more than three years of age saunters over to hug a dog that's taller than her. The towering dog allows it, even resting its head on her shoulder. ( u/SquareBottle )
Two children have taken a ball from a third, who looks to be on the verge of tears. A nearby horse whinnies as the older kids toss the ball back and forth, distracting one of the bullies at exactly the right moment to cause him to be pelted in the face. The younger kid snatches back their ball, sticks out their tongue, and runs away. ( u/SquareBottle )
A young, overdressed nobleman is attempting to woo a lady. He steps in something unpleasant, and the trailing pair of chaperoning attendants struggle to contain their laughter. ( u/SquareBottle )
Graham the Hobo seems to have decided that now would be an excellent time for a bath in a nearby fountain. ( u/SquareBottle )
A small group of friars is administering short blessings and distributing loaves of bread to a queue of downtrodden families and street urchins. ( u/SquareBottle )
An elderly couple quietly sits on a bench holding hands. Two old, feral cats are sitting together on their haunches at the other end of the bench. The old man and his coincidentally corresponding cat sneeze at the exact same time. Neither couple seems to pay any attention to the other. ( u/SquareBottle )
Someone farts, nobody is that bothered ( u/bigfootbob )
Plump teenage girl and her spindly younger brother are setting up fried chicken stand in the town square. There's a big wicker cage of doomed chickens softly clucking. ( u/felagund )
A fella sitting back in a chair, feet up on a table/what-have-you quietly humming a song to himself. ( u/DonnkeyKongJR )
A group of 2 to 4 men unloading a wagon. ( u/catdragon64 )
A cat stalking a butterfly ( u/catdragon64 )
Two small boys climbing a tree. ( u/catdragon64 )
A maid beating a rug ( u/catdragon64 )
A farmer plowing a field ( u/catdragon64 )
A horse throwing/losing his horseshoe. ( u/catdragon64 )
A teenager chasing his/hetheir dog, its leash trailing behind the dog. ( u/catdragon64 )
A man proposing to a woman (or vice versa, or any combination thereof). ( u/catdragon64 )
A person painting the side of his house/store. ( u/catdragon64 )
A person cleaning the street (perhaps a punishment for a minor infraction of the law). ( u/catdragon64 )
A cleric on a soapbox preaching. ( u/catdragon64 )
A flock of birds clustered around a bakery. ( u/catdragon64 )
Local town councilman is putting up posters and shaking hands in the town square, reminding people of the upcoming election. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Two maintenance men lead a horse and cart with tar and cobblestones to repair potholes in the main streets of town. ( u/hcaneandrew )
There's a commotion at the local barbershop as a aging noblewoman with "the vapors" demands the barber to urgently soothe her stomach demons by reading her humors and applying leeches. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Brenda pushes her cart of home grown vegetables through the street toward the farmers market, muttering on about every perceived slight and insult she's received over the years from awful Farmer Mills, the man who has a wheat flour and baked goods cart. ( u/hcaneandrew )
A rat drags a piece of bread larger than it is along the street and into the sewer drain. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Two girls play hopscotch, one is called by her mother to come home. The other one frowns and eventually wanders off home. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Farmer Mills and Farmer Hewson argue about irrigation and water rights as the spring rains have been few and far between. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Graham the Hobo has set up a three card monte table outside a pub with a deck of cards that looks like he found in a ditch. "Try your luck" he shouts. ( u/hcaneandrew )
Graham the Hobo feeds a malnourished stray dog a small piece of bread from the loaf he is eating ( u/cabnoid )
Graham the Hobo sees a woman unknowingly drop a piece of fine jewelry, then returns it to her ( u/cabnoid )
A fisherman is digging up and collecting worms ( u/Narraclamborg )
A gnome tinkers with a toy dragon as a child watches in fascination. ( u/Patergia )
A group of children play as make-believe adventurers. ( u/Patergia )
A noble buys a caged bird. ( u/Patergia )
You notice a child picking the loose portions of a brick from a wall. ( u/bionku )
A well-dressed man with the voice of an auctioneer is selling a miracle cure for diseases no one’s heard of. ( u/Meandtheboys16 )
A young man taking the long way around the block/square or doubling back to peek in a window. He is nervous but doesn't seem to be doing anything wrong. He is sweet on a food vendor who works selling fried dumplings/ falafel and tries to find an opportunity to talk to her ( u/ThursdayTheology )
A young man stop in the street and watch a particularly nice horse go by. He appears to be grocer or general store kind of assistant. His shirt is used but clean and his duties take him inside and outside a shop dusting carpets. If you watch for half an hour he lingers and studies a horse that has been tethered nearby. It's a nicer horse than most people see and you guess he knows how to judge good horseflesh by how he sizes them up. ( u/ThursdayTheology )
There is a man on stilts, whitewashing the outside of a house. He rolls his eyes and is curt with everyone who makes a joke about "how's the weather up there?". He mutters to himself that this is more efficient than a ladder. He openly yells and tells off a group of three kids who clearly are working towards a plan to mess with his stilts. ( u/ThursdayTheology )
A young woman briefly stops to smell the fresh bread as she walks past the bakery. ( u/theswordandstaff )
A man leaves a large building and pauses for a moment. He pats his pockets, sighs in disappointment, then goes back into the building to grab whatever he had forgotten. ( u/ski-doo )
Two men load a cart outside of a home while a nobleman speaks to the homes crying owner reviewing a piece of parchment. ( u/MrDeuteronomy )
Another child is throwing a tantrum in the street, crying about not wanting to go inside. ( u/thorax )
A couple is arguing outside a tavern. ( u/thorax )
A woman stands by the water, washing clothes. ( u/thorax )
A group of three men teasing each other over a dice game. ( u/thorax )
An older fruit salesman demonstrates to a curious onlooker how to use a mallet to crush grapes in a small vat. ( u/thorax )
Two children arguing over a toy, and their mother hanging her clothespins, oblivious. ( u/thorax )
A couple in deep discussion about whether or not to spend their savings on a new property or to continue saving. ( u/thorax )
Two children playing a game of marbles. They are about seven years old. One has a ring of blue, red, and yellow marbles. The other has a ring of green, blue, and purple. ( u/thorax )
Two children playing on top of a hay wagon. They appear to be twin brothers about five years old. ( u/thorax )
Two ducks with ducklings following them. You are confused why they're here in the village, but their wet footprints likely lead back to a small pond nearby. ( u/thorax )
Two ducks are in a pen with their latest batch of babies. One of the villagers say that they are "mill" ducks and how it's such a pity they have been cross breeding them for centuries to attain a perfect egg-laying machine. ( u/thorax )
A small brown hare drinking from a stream. It is quite a ways away from the rest of a batch of rabbits that are gathering near the feet of two hunters. The brown hare also seems to lack the distinctive black ears and white nose of the others. ( u/thorax )
A small fence surrounds a nearly empty plot of land. This plot of land apparently is where the town gallows currently sit. The current hanging dummy, a simple wooden figure of a man, stands with a sign that reads "Thievery." ( u/thorax )
A local town boy is selling a box of potentially enchanted cookies ( u/AVoraciousLatias )
Shopkeeper and his employee brother are splitting up the profits. “Four for me, one for you. Four for me, one for you.” “That’s not fair! I work twice as hard as you.” “Oh really?! But I take all the risk! Alright then. FIVE for me, one for you.” ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
Graham the Hobo deftly stops a child from wandering into the path of a moving wagon ( u/StomicDaikaiju )
A man is talking to a woman. They aren't doing anything important, but a passing man in a hat smiles at them. ( u/thorax )
A child is missing his two front teeth. ( u/thorax )
A little girl leading around a goat with a string. ( u/thorax )
The village blacksmith and his neighbor are talking with each other over the fence that separates their two houses. ( u/thorax )
You see a thatched roof house near the edge of town. A female halfling walks out of the front door and stands on the porch. She turns and says something to someone inside, then turns and shuts the door. ( u/thorax )
A young man is practicing archery by himself. ( u/thorax )
You hear a scream, and as you glance up, it turns out to be someone's shriek of happy recognition as a woman sees an old friend they haven't seen in a while. ( u/thorax )
An old man, with two days of beard stubble and stains on his shirt, stands on a street corner scratching the top of his butt crack and watching people walk by. ( u/OwenMcCauley )
- Three people have stopped hanging linens and are arguing about thelyrics to a well known song. Two of the trio insist that the last person is singing the lyrics wrong. The song is about adding to the parts of a tree and repeating previous verses:

' The branch was on the limb, the limb was on the tree, the tree was on the stump, the stump was in the hole...'
(In real life it's the song 'Rattlin Bog' if you don't want to make your own lyrics)
The two are correct. There's regional variance on certain words, but the third person is just getting the order of the tree wrong.
Interestingly, surrounding townsfolk not in the trio begin singing after a few minutes of the trio arguing over the lyrics. ( u/ThursdayTheology)

Three girls are jumping rope and are learning a new trick ( u/ThursdayTheology)
A farmhand or shepard/ranch hand is juggling. She's not passing the hat or anything, she is bored, standing next to a wagon. To a trained eye she is self-taught, and can do columns, cascade, and reverse cascade. Her older sister sits in the wagon, minding the horse pulling it. The wagon sits outside a post-station. The wagon has shovel and pickaxe heads and bundles of appropriately sized wooden staves in the back of it. ( u/ThursdayTheology)
A small group of people have placed a mug on a bench and are attempting to throw rocks into it from increasingly longer distances. ( u/Kondrias )
A father is lecturing his child about having warned them about the sharp rocks and slick footing as the child is whiping away tears with a bloody gash on their leg as the dad wraps the leg in bandages. ( u/Kondrias )
A small cluster of merchants are leaving their office and undoing their coats and ties as they step out into the hot air of the day. ( u/Kondrias )
The local dockmaster cheerily walks by holding a fishing set and tackle. ( u/Kondrias )
The herbalist tends to their small garden taking deep breaths of every crop therein before and after trimming. ( u/Kondrias )
A nobleman attempting but failing to nonchalantly exit the home of a prostitute. He quickly tries to hide his face from anyone making eye contact with him. Smells of liquor and cheap perfume. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )

104.Two boys walking down the street. One steps in a pile of dog poop. The other boy laughs at his misfortune before stepping into a much larger pile of horse poop a few steps later. The first boy quickly turns from scowling to laughing hysterically at the second boy. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )

A cat licking the ear of a dog that is lying outside the door to a shop. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A goat standing inside a small pen. A puppy wiggles under the fence and begins nursing from the goat’s teat. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A very lovable dog approaches your party wanting to be petted. Roughly tries to sniff the crotch of each member before urinating on anyone with any elvish heritage. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
A little girl playing with her dollies acting out an argument she apparently heard between her parents. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )
An old woman approaches your party who opens her coat and offers to sell various items of “fine, expensive jewelry”. All items are either made from wood, string and garbage or are completely imaginary. She spits on the party when they refuse to consider her wares. ( u/OpeScuseMe74 )

I am 25 years old, made $87,000 last year and expect to make $104,000 this year, live in Minneapolis, and work as a Data Analyst / Data Scientist.

Note: I’m not a citizen, but I’ve been living in the US long enough to be considered a resident alien for tax purposes. On my visa, I cannot work any job that’s not directly related to my major in grad school (IT/computer science), but I can invest in the stock market.

Section One: Assets and Debt

Net Worth: from -$13,603.63 (Jan 2020) to $9,605.97 (Jan 2021)
Retirement Balance: $16,000 in my 401(K).
I only started working 2 years ago and my company messed up my registration so they basically didn’t put any money into it my first year there (I found out in horror and they gave me around $1,000 to say sorry…). I contribute 9% and my company matches 3%.
Savings account balance: $2,500
I have $2,500 set aside as my “emergency fund”, and I’m building back my vacation & study abroad budgets after having to tap into them for a move. My job is very stable and I won't be let go any time soon (unless I quit myself) so I’m not setting aside a big emergency fund for now.
Checking account balance: $3,111.01
Investment account: $1,500 in some stocks.
I initially dumped half of my 2019 bonus and some monthly contributions (totaling around $4,000) to this account to test strategies. This was my “study fund” and I didn’t care if I’d lose it all. I grew the account to around $10,000 and withdrew almost everything (that went to all the fees I had to pay to break my lease, my brother’s lease, deposit, moving expenses, and new furniture) and left $1,500 worth of stocks in there right now.
Credit card debt: $2,243.76 on my BestBuy card and PayPal Credit.
I had the money to pay for the items in full but they offered X months interest-free and I wanted to throw money into my debts instead. I always pay off all balances well before the deadline. I also pay all my credit cards in full and have never paid any interest.
Student loan debt: $11,046.09 left on my $20,000 loans at 8% for my BA in Biology and Statistics. Day 1 of arriving in the US, they sat us down, handed each of us a pen, and said hey kids here are the terms of your 8% loans, sign the documents now! I just turned 17, didn't even know I had to pay this money back, and remembered thinking "Is 8% a lot?" That's how clueless I was.
As a non-citizen, I will never have them canceled, so my plan was to tackle this as soon as possible and I started paying more aggressively until they made it 0% interest since Q4 last year.
Car loan: $4,900 left on my $10,000 loan at 8.9%. I didn’t have a long credit history when I bought the car (September 2019) since I only got my first credit card after graduation, so the rate was terrible. I’m planning to pay this all off after my bonus comes in March.

Section Two: Income

Income Progression:
2012 - 2016: I had multiple student on-campus jobs all throughout my undergrad, making from $7.25 to $10/hour. After graduation, I couldn't find any job directly related to my majors within 3 months (I had only been searching for Bio lab work), ran out of money, and had to go back home. Honestly, I didn't want to keep doing science either and was very lost back then.
2017: My first full-time job was being a tutor for a private college prep institution when I went back to my home country to “figure out what I wanted to do with my life.” They paid pretty well for the standards of living there ($1,000/mo). I worked that job while self-studying how to code and data science courses on the side and preparing my grad school applications.
2019: I got a job at my current company a semester before I graduated from my MS in Data Science program. This was my first “big girl job.” I started out at $64,000 and couldn’t work for 2 months due to complications in my visa processes so that ate up all my savings that year. By the end of the year, they bumped my salary up to $76,000 and we also had an annual 3% raise, so in total $78,280 + 5% bonus.
2020: One of my teammates left and one thing led to another, I got a title change from Data Analyst to Data Scientist towards the end of the year. I asked for a raise and they bumped it to $96,000 + 5% bonus.
2021: After our annual 3% raise my salary is now $98,880 (+ at least 5% bonus). I think I’m slightly underpaid, but this job is very low-stress and flexible (especially after we WFH).
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5,082.58
Taken from my last paychecks (before the annual raise)
Gross salary: $8,000
Tax: $2,081.68
401(k) deduction: $720
Health insurance: $115.74

Section Three: Expenses

Rent & renter’s insurance: $935 for my share for a 2bed/3bath condo. My parents pay a flat $700/mo for my brother’s share. He recently moved here since his school went virtual until at least the end of this semester and our family wanted us to be nearby to take care of each other.
Savings contribution: $900
Investment contribution: $420, but will increase once my car loan is paid off.
Debt payments:

$1,000 on car loan until paid off.
$200.13 minimum on student loans for now at 0% interest, will increase to $1,100 when car loan is paid off.
$300 for Best Buy & PayPal Credit promotional deals

Car insurance: $127.01 ($762.05 paid in full every 6 months)
Car registration: $25 ($300 annual)
Donations: $20 monthly (ASPCA), plus several hundreds throughout the year (last year I donated to BLM orgs and local animal shelters)
Gas: $0. I drive an electric car. Charging probably drives up my electric bill by a bit, but still cheaper than gas. Also, this means no car maintenance at all until my car battery dies, which probably won’t happen in the next 5 years.
Utilities (electric, natural gas): ~$150
Wifi: $40
Cellphone: $10.61 ($108.66 for 6 months and I got a $45 credit from my bank)
Groceries: $500 (for 2 people)
Subscriptions: $20 (HP Ink, shared Netflix account, YNAB, Disney+)
Pet expenses: ~$20 for wet cat food
Personal care/hobby: I collect perfumes. Between makeup, skincare, clothes (which I had planned to stop buying this year) and perfume bottles and samples (the majority of my "personal care" expenses...), I averaged $400/mo last year. Without the makeup, skincare and clothes, I budget $150/mo this year for my fragrance hobby.
Household supplies: $30
Education: $30 (language/technical textbooks, Udemy/Coursera)
Gifts: $30
Credit card fee: $21 ($250 annual)

Section Four: Background

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Education is one of the top priorities in our household and this has been instilled in my mind since I was a kid. Perhaps because my grandparents were both professors and my parents both attended grad school, it was expected of us to have at least a bachelor's degree. With that said, my family tried to support our higher education financially as best they could and I'm very thankful for it. During undergrad, I had need-based financial aid and on-campus jobs, and my parents helped with the rest of my tuition. I still had to take (required by the school) a $20,000 loan. My grandmother helped pay for my 2-year master's program.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
During high school, I had a measly weekly allowance and my dad had me write out all the transactions in a notebook. I thought it was very silly back then but now thinking back, it was probably some good practice. Other than that, they didn't talk about money at all, and I was absolutely clueless and wasn't interested in personal finance until a couple of years ago. I don't remember how but I think I woke up one day and decided to read every book about personal finance I could find and now I do talk with my dad about finances.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was washing dishes as a student worker! We all had to do it our freshman year before we were allowed to find other jobs. I managed to find 3 other jobs (stage crew, sports event worker, and math tutor) and stayed with all of them for 3 years.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Even though our parents never let on to us about their finances, they made sure that we'd grow up comfortable financially, so I didn't worry because I didn't know anything.
Do you worry about money now?
Yes. As I grew up, I came to learn more about my parents' financial situation and realized that they've sacrificed a lot for us. I had the majority of my college tuition supported by the school, but my brother doesn't, and tuition in the US isn't cheap, especially when you convert it to our local currency. I also never know for how long I can stay in the US and keep making the same kind of money I'm making now so I'm trying my best to pay down the student loans ASAP.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I became fully financially responsible for myself when I started working at my current company. Before that my student worker jobs paid for my personal expenses in college but my parents still chipped in for tuition. I guess my family back home is my safety net but personally, I wouldn't ask them for help even if bad things happen to me in the future.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Nope.

Diary

Day 1 (Thursday) - $3.35

Alexa wakes me up and turns the light on. I change into my work clothes and head downstairs to my “office.” My boss starts our daily standup call, talking about what we did yesterday and what we plan for the day.
I have my annual review meeting. Everything goes well and my bosses are very pleased with what I’ve done, especially after I transitioned into my new title as a Data Scientist, which honestly brought me more fulfillment in my job as well. We talk about our annual bonus and raise, which I already expected. It’s not a lot of money but hey any money is money and I’m not saying no.
Some people bought my photocards so I gather all the orders and purchase a shipping label since 1 order is with tracked shipping. (Don’t ask me how this works but I’m a K-pop fan and we collect expensive cardboards. Depending on the popularity of the member of the group, profit margins can go up to 400%.) I head to the post office and drop off all the packages ($3.35)
I’ve been waiting for the mailman all day and he finally comes! I’ve been working from home for almost a year now and my back pain is starting to kill me so I decided to “invest” in a $400 chair with lumbar and neck support. My cat happily takes the other chair and starts claiming her territory on it.

Day 2 (Friday) - $206.24

I wake up on cue at Alexa’s daily briefing. Half an hour passes while I ponder on a perfume sample set I saw in someone’s fragrance collection on Reddit.
I eventually give in and purchase the Zoologist sample set ($120.24). It’s within my budget this month, I’ve been eyeing this one for some time now and I can resell it for 80% value once I’m done testing them, so it’s not a huge loss anyway.
Late lunch today. I make a quick lunch with sausages and keto toasts and quickly finish it while watching some YouTube videos on personal finance and updates on $GME (no I did not buy any shares).
When in doubt, throw every leftover food in your fridge in a pan and make fried rice. Side dish is sweet and sour tomato and egg “cloud soup.” Then we have our weekly family video call with my parents back in my home country.
I go down the YouTube rabbit hole again and buy 2 more perfume sample sets ($86.00). All the purchases today (~50 samples) would probably take me months to try out so I promise myself no more until next quarter as I click the pay button.

Day 3 (Saturday) - $71.27

I wake up at 8:45 am and laze around for half an hour, scrolling down Twitter and answering my friend’s questions on how to enter the stock market. Today is my cheat day (I have one every 2-3 weeks), so I contemplate if I should order delivery for lunch. I check YNAB and decide that it’s too expensive, so I go downstairs to make myself a hearty breakfast with a latte, half a croissant, grilled chicken breasts, and snack on some shrimp crackers and tangerines.
I purchase a shipping label ($3.22) and head out to the post office. For some reason I want to smell like a lemon cake today, so I spritz on Xerjoff Lira, put on sunscreen, and head out. This perfume always makes me feel so warm and delicious.
I spend the whole afternoon catching up with my Chinese and Korean lessons for the week.
Suddenly craving some instant noodles, so I immediately get up and head to a local Asian grocery store to shop for instant and pho noodles (I’m planning to make pho for Lunar New Year) and some snacks for my brother ($38.71). We drop by a bubble tea shop nearby and get bubble tea and 2 dessert cakes ($19.71). I usually don’t drink sugary drinks, but since it’s my cheat day, I put in an order and pay for the both of us.
Some more PC orders came in and they’re all with tracked shipping. The post office is closed tomorrow but I’ll just pay now for the shipping labels so that I won’t forget ($9.63).

Day 4 (Sunday) - $0.00

I literally do nothing today until 4 pm.
I make dinner, then finish my Chinese lesson and review the flashcards I made yesterday. That’s enough activity for the day.
One of my friends calls to show me her album haul of the day and I'm tempted, but (fortunately?) there's no kpop store in my city so I make myself forget about buying any more albums.

Day 5 (Monday) - $40.10

I wake up with a headache, not feeling too well, so I request a day off and message my boss. I can’t go back to sleep, so I just lie there in bed for a couple of hours. I suddenly remember that WandaVision is on air, and there are a couple of movies on there I haven’t watched yet, so I subscribe to Disney+ ($7.52) and start binge-watching.
We ran out of soft drinks for my brother, so I have to drive to Costco again after lunch ($32.58). I also need to drop off all the orders that came in over the weekend.
I go to my old apartment for my move-out inspection (I haven't been living there since December but still had to honor the 2-month notice and pay for all the rent). There are a couple of spots that might cost me some deductions in my deposit. Sigh. At least I get to tell them to remove the charges on my lease for February, and they assure me that they will.
I finish binge-watching some movies on Disney+. I see Colourpop is advertising some Valentine’s Day palettes on my feed. I do not need those, I do not need those, I do not need those. I should’ve just unfollowed makeup brands on social media. Some more late-night scrolling, and then I finally go to sleep.

Day 6 (Tuesday) - $8.02

I wake up groggily, still feeling a bit sick. We have a late standup today, so I take my time making my coffee and start working, as my cat also settles in on my lap and starts napping. My head is still aching and I'm not sure if it's the cold or just keto flu so I load up on electrolytes, fish oil, and acetaminophen just in case.
Somebody lowballed me on one of my postings. Ugh I hate it when they do this, but this one is not selling too well, so I meet them halfway. I purchase another shipping label ($3.03).
Today is our bi-monthly deployment date, which means all the engineers (and anyone who has committed changes in our codebase) meet up and sit around until all the merges are deployed into production. I had some changes last week so I just sit there and do my own work until it's my turn. My boss told me this morning he had some test API from one of our new clients so I go to check out some of the data there. Oh how I love me some messy, messy data that nobody knows what to do with.
The repair guy who came to fix our washing machine doesn't leave until 5:15 pm so I drop by the post office late, but just in time as they're collecting the mail! Then I drop by a nearby (rather upscale) grocery store as I'm running out of heavy cream, but everything is so expensive. I compare price per oz and pick up the coffee creamer instead ($4.99).
I heat up the cauliflower rice and leftover curry and eat dinner as I watch Coco (I can't believe I've never actually watched it!) Then I review my Chinese flashcards for a bit, do half an hour of Just Dance until I sweat, play with my cat, and call it a day.

Day 7 (Wednesday) - $3.49

I stayed up quite late yesterday playing a mobile game and finally wake up after snoozing the alarm for the 84th time. My boss starts our standup at our usual time; there's nothing urgent or pressing today so I just take my time. I take a quick nap in the afternoon and go back to work.
I use the last drops of avocado oil to fry up some bulgogi for dinner. Need to go back to Costco for more avocado oil tomorrow, I guess.
After dinner, a friend asks me about perfume samples that she wants to try. I go online to search for them but no dice since they belong to a new collection that only got launched in Europe. I take this time to try out some similar smelling samples in my collection as well.
I review my Chinese flashcards and do some workbook exercises. After an hour, my brain is fried on Chinese but I don't want to go to bed yet, so I pick up a book on my bookcase that I was reading a while ago (A Random Walk Down Wall Street) and read one more chapter.
An order came in so I purchase another shipping label ($3.49), update my budgeting app for a bit, and then head to bed.

Summary

Category	Amount	Note
Food & Drink	$95.99	Groceries
Fun / Entertainment	$7.52	Disney+ subscription
Home & Health	$0.00
Clothes & Beauty	$206.24	Perfume samples
Other*	$22.72	Shipping labels
Total	$309.75	shipping labels not included

*I don’t count the shipping labels as expenses because they’re already factored into the profits I made from my sales, but I included them anyway because they're still charges on my accounts. Any profit goes back to funding my album purchases so... I guess it's a vicious cycle.
Overall, a pretty normal week for me in terms of food. I don’t eat out often (I allow myself only one meal and one dessert every month) and have used up my 1 dessert allowance this week so I probably won't have any more this month. I might’ve gone overboard with the perfume purchases this week, but tbh perfumes bring me joy. My mood is lifted and I'm transported to old and new places every time I put on a perfume that I enjoy, so for me, it’s worth it. I try to be frugal whenever I can, but I'll never skimp on education and hobbies that make me happy. Writing this week-long diary, I realize I need to get back to working out, though. I'll probably have to stop procrastinating and pull out my RingFit gears still inside the moving boxes. Playing Just Dance also makes me miss dancing so bad as I used to be active in several dance crews since college (but stopped after I started working full time). I'll try to stick to Just Dance for now to get my cardio until Covid is over and I can get back to in-person dance classes.

What hacks do you have up your sleeve for this hobby? Did you make the perfect box for your game out of an old crate? Do you have a huge game in a tackle box? How do you get creative with your collection? I wanna see the best and the jankiest hacks you have for your collection.

Hunter or Huntress Chapter 66: Drinking, Shooting, and Balloons

So then another chapter good to go, I promise we will be back to the regular schedule soon but for now this will have to do. My thanks once again to TwoFlower68 for his work combing through all this.
I hope it's still up to scratch despite my math fried brain. What do you say we fine out... To the story!
ko-fi for those feeling generous
Sapphire
First Previous Next
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Chapter 66: Drinking, Shooting, and Balloons
As it turned out hunting deer with a flying lightning gun was incredibly efficient. The only problem was the rather singed nature of the result. Only four of the hides didn’t have substantial burn marks on them, luckily for Tom and the others, Jackalope had been in charge so she received the brunt of the verbal abuse from Nunuk for ruining such fine red-deer pelts.
The result was that they were banned from hunting using Jarix’s lightning breath. At least until they could come up with a way of doing it without destroying the valuable pelts. Then there was the matter that they really needed to hunt the woods rather than just the grasslands on the outskirts.
Jarix was nimble enough to fly between the heaven oak trees but the regular trees in the undergrowth were off-limits and he would also need a clearing or a perch of some kind to land. They had secured a sizable amount of meat once again though so they had time to work with. Given that Jarix ate more than the rest of the keep combined, they didn’t have much breathing room though, they were going to have to keep up the pressure. Tom had a feeling this was gonna put a dent in his ammunition supply then, 'cause he sure as shit wasn’t learning to use a bow right now.
He had bigger things to worry about, such as how to wind the rotor by hand in a reasonable time and how to keep Shiva from getting more than slightly drunk on his precious fuel. She and Raulf had been very merry when Tom had finally made it to the workshop. Kiran gratefully exchanging Tom’s hard helmet for his soft warm hair. Turinia was also still in Tom’s arms as he didn’t trust her and Holdey wasn't quite over their differences yet.
“Did you at least mix some of it?”
“Ohh yeah, we’re halfway with the first metal can, jug thing” Shiva replied with a sly smile clearly feeling good right now.
“Great and how much have you drunk of that stuff ?”
“We made a jar in the middle, *Hiik*, taste okay when watered down,” Raulf replied seemingly proud of the fact. Tom had been planning on teaching them how to make proper whiskey but it would seem that wouldn’t be necessary, the shittiest moonshine in history apparently did the trick.
“Wanna sip?” Might as well see how bad this stuff actually was. He accepted the small glass jar and took a small sip. It burned, but it had definitely been watered down, at least by half.
That did upset his inner engineer a bit as he had worked so hard to make this stuff as pure as possible. Aside from tasting like half-strength medicinal spirits, it wasn’t that bad actually. He had half expected to puke on contact, it just didn’t really taste of anything. Hell with something to mix with it might even make a decent drink… and Jarix had sorta solved their fuel problems for the time being, since they didn’t need the quad bike.
But they didn’t have anything to mix it with, the only juice they had was that berry stuff they made themselves, of which there was preciously little. The children had gotten some during the feast for Vulzan last time.
“So wadaya think?” Shiva questioned as Tom stood there pondering.
“I guess it’ll do for getting you drunk”
“And that is the important part” Shiva went pointing a finger at him. Tom just shook his head, she was right though it would definitely do that and more cheaply than the beer if they didn’t use the purest of the resulting distillate. Maybe just keep the leftovers from the runs for drinking, that couldn’t hurt… much.
__________________________________________________________________________________
“Do you think we can grab a proper drink or two while we are there?” Balethon questioned. Playing dice had lasted almost an hour but now the general conversation was doing the trick.
“Sure these court things usually take ages. I would be surprised if we even get to the court within a week. Then they might have to go through several sessions for which we may or may not be required.” Dakota clarified for them.
“Sweet, think we got enough money to stay for that long though?”
“If you wanna get drunk every night no, but that is on your bill, I’m paying for the tavern and meals though”
“Really?” Sapphire asked, surprised. She had thought they would be splitting at least the meals.
"Yup. Nunuk was feeling generous or perhaps more busy with figuring out how to get her claws into the bitch, I don’t know”
Sapphire had brought every coin she owned and now she could spend them as she pleased. What did she want to spend it on though?
“We need at least one good night out, come on girls, it will be fun.” Balethon tried in his most convincing tone. Sapphire didn’t have a problem with that idea though.
“If it means you won’t get drunk and cause a scene if we end up having to attend something more high class then sure. I’ll indulge you.” Dakota replied, Sapphire knew damn well that Dakota didn’t mind a good drink every now and again. So she guessed this was about making Baltethon believe they were doing him a favor.
“High class? Are you expecting some nobles to invite us to something?”
“We have friends too, Bale boy, might need to go see some of them. Don’t forget you are talking with one right now”
“Never been to something like that,” Balethon admitted. During her time in the capital, Sapphire hadn’t exactly been part of high-class society either. She had gone to a very nice ball after she won the championship, that had been quite the experience at the time.
“Sapphire, didn’t your big brother work at a sorta normal tavern?”
“Yup, the Sweet Dragon”
“Sounds like a good place to start” Sapphire had never even seen the place, so she just crossed her fingers that her brother had a decent taste in establishments.
“A bit early to worry about that isn’t it?” Cabrera joined in, clearly not having left the discussion entirely. “That is an alright place though I've been there before. We still got day’s worth of flying to do so we were wonderi...”
Tirox stuck his head over Cabrera’s shoulder. “Wondering if you had any more stories about Tom” Tirox seemed like a very excitable fellow with even worse manners than Jackalope, he didn’t seem malicious though, so that was something. “You know... that you are allowed to tell”
They certainly had a few they should probably avoid anything concerning weapons, Sapphire didn’t quite know what they were allowed to say. There was the one where he fought Rachuck till he passed out.
“What about the one where he fell asleep on the floor with Jackalope in the smithy and we all thought they did you know what?” Balethon asked eagerly.
‘Okay that one then, at least he would be the one telling it then’ Sapphire thought to herself. Then she noticed all eyes were currently looking at her, Dakota had scooted up beside Balethon looking expectantly at Sapphire as if to insinuate that she knew the story. ‘Damn tactician and her quick thinking’ Sapphire muttered to herself before beginning.
“Well, it all started with the feast following the battle, where we saved all of you.” never mind Sapphire had done diddly squat during that fight.
__________________________________________________________________________________
As they all sat in the grand hall Tom was fiddling with the projector. He had tried to make the computer write in something that looked like draconic symbols to no avail, hence he was still stuck with movies that made sense even if you didn’t know what people were saying, or at least that could be easily explained. He had really wanted to show them We Were Soldiers or maybe Band of Brothers...
In the end, he had gone for two movies. First was one for everyone to enjoy, kids included. Much to their delight. He had considered Wall-E but he wasn’t feeling up for explaining space or being accused of heresy yet. In the end, he went with Up because who couldn’t love that?
Thinking back, that particular movie did have a darker opening than he had remembered as he was currently buried beneath every kid in the keep, all yammering about how unfair it all was. It was at moments like this he wished Esmeralda was up and about already. Most of the others were too busy asking about things like, what is a balloon why do they all look so weird, so not much support there either. In hindsight, he should also have explained animation a bit more thoroughly than “Imaginary pictures that aren't real”
It got so bad a halt had to be called to proceedings while he went about explaining what an animated movie was, what the premise of the film was, what a car was, that yes they had running water in their homes and no he couldn’t just use balloons to fly like the dragonettes because that would be impractical.
“But you could do it?” Fengi questioned
“Only if I find helium and rubber. Which are both of the things needed to make balloons and remember, this is just a story. It isn’t real. Balloons can’t lift much. I would need as many as the house just to lift me.”
“Then why does the house fly?” Raulf questioned.
“In a story, things don’t have to be true, you can lie to make it more fantasti...cal. Kiran would you mind?”
“I fell off sorry” Kiran replied as he clambered up the front of Tom’s face to his usual spot.
“So remember, most of what you see isn’t how it is. We could make a movie like this where humans could just fly. That obviously won’t work in the real world, now would it?”
There were nods from around the room, Tom sighed a bit he hadn’t expected this to pose so many problems. He had continued the movie deciding to let the movie do the talking for him and just not explain anything other than what was being said. The questions started dying down, soon the adults weren’t taking it too seriously anymore and the kid’s often not realizing when something was off. by the time they found the talking dog Dug Tom was happy to see laughter around the hall even if there were a few heads shaking here and there.
They even really rooted for our unlikely heroes. He had almost feared they would side with Munzt being a hunter. There was more laughter and held breaths as Tom let the movie work its magic, they were all having a great time.
“Evil man can’t fly, he too heavy” Kiran let out, sounding a bit too cheerful at Muntz’s death.
“Good riddance, he wouldn’t have survived an encounter with Kalestine” Wiperna concluded.
No arguing there, Tom threw a slightly worried glance at Jarix. Maybe they too needed to worry about ending up in a Muntz situation on that front. Those were worries for later though right now they had a movie to enjoy. They had even cheered for Russell when he finally got his badge at the end. Then the questions started again, Fengi clearly not able to hold it in any longer.
“Tom I know the house wasn’t real but was the big gray thing? It’s like a flying building, that wasn’t real either right?”
“Yes and no. It's called an airship and they did exist, they weren’t capable of carrying that much stuff though. They were huge though”
“Were? Why did you stop making them?”
“They were expensive and dangerous. They liked to blow up.”
“That sounds bad… why did you build them in the first place then?” Fengi did have a point that hadn’t been the best sales speech, that didn’t matter though it wasn’t like he could make one anyway.
“They could fly. You could sleep in a comfortable bed and wake up somewhere new, who doesn’t like that . On that note, we need to get you lot of the bed it’s already past your bedtime”
“Tom, can we get a dog like Dug?” Calhoun Tried in doing his best to be adorable.
“Not unless we find one, you can’t make a dog”
“What about the collar thing, could we put one on a deer to make it speak?” Holdey added in very excitedly
“I’m Afraid I’m a bit to stupid to figure out how those collars work, sorry” There was a universal flattening of ears at that around the kids. Shiva just had a chuckle from the corner.
“Talking deer, that would be something” Well she wasn’t wrong.
“Now come on we need to get you lot tucked in” Wiperna and Fengi helped herd the kids up to their bedroom for the night.
There was the usual protest but in the end, they were all nice and tucked in. One advantage of dragonette children was that they were clearly a lot better at sleeping than human kids and with lights out it didn’t take many minutes before the yammering died down being replaced with cute little snoring.
For the adults, he had gone for something with more spectacle, racism, and most importantly more flying. As he sat back down at the table arranged so they could see the screen the title card came up “Red Tails”
‘This should be good’ Tom thought to himself.
He did his best to explain the setting and what was happening in the ground scenes. They were familiar with WW2 so that helped. That and the fact that they were utterly mesmerized by the aircraft. There had been questions sure, but they were mostly what the planes could do and the movie did great at that part at least spectacle-wise. It almost managed to distract the experienced flyers from some of the maneuvers being pulled.
The whole black human had been a whole new can of worms though. Tom had expected that and they needed to know. Still, there were a lot of uncomfortable questions. Tom elected not to answer and let the movie do it for him since that had worked so well last time.
The fact they were more like a dark brown than the ashen gray black the dragonettes were used to helped a lot. The fact they quickly proved themselves pure of soul and damn effective combatants did win the dragonets over rather quickly though. It did also help that they were clearly all fighting similar judgments on screen. Tom even saw quite a few ashamed faces amongst his friends once they figured out the kind of life these people had and what they had gone through to fly. They had to fight for the right to fight. Unlike everyone else.
They thoroughly enjoyed the fight scenes as he had expected, even the fatalities. They were a lot better at handling a plane with a guy being shot down it seemed they could more closely relate to that. It also helped that Tom compared the bombers to dragons. Jarix and crew of course had more than a few questions on those defense guns and Jarix had seemed a bit disappointed at their effectiveness.
Tom had assured the young dragon that that was down to the planes going three or four times faster than any dragon could in level flight and that of course did make them very hard to hit. The results once they did hit were nothing to sniff at either so in the end, the dragon had seemed content with the weapons performance even if he was already talking of more than one gun now.
Tom had tried to sell them the idea of bombs. Without much success though. Short of attacking a city or a keep he could see why. It wasn’t like hostile dragonettes would just sit there and wait to be bombed after all.
“What about my father, I don’t know where you would drop them, but he does like just cruising along nice and steady. You know nothing too strenuous.” Jarix snickered.
“Sure I don't see why not. If you wanna hit with level bombing you need to be very steady.”
“What's the alternative?” Zarko questioned sounding curious.
“Dive bombing” That got their attention. “Basically you dive at a target aiming yourself at them like you're gonna crash into them, then you drop your bomb and pull up. Rather simple really”
“I could do that,” Jarix concluded.
“And bring down a keep in a single run” Zarko added. “it has been done with big rocks and things like that during sieges, but nothing like what those things are dropping.
Tom could literally see the horror on Radexi's face at having to deal with a dragon dive-bombing the keep. The poor dude wasn’t having an easy time as of late and with the report of possible hostiles in the area, that hadn’t improved.
“How would you defend against that Tom?” The captain asked, trying to sound professional and to his credit only failing slightly.
“Anti-air guns, and fighters. Not much else you can do” Tom admitted. “Or build something that can survive the hit.”
“We sorta have fighters. We can’t just rebuild the keep, soo… what is this anti-air gun?” Tom sighed internally at the notion of adding yet another thing to his list of stuff that was likely never gonna be complete. He guessed he could put this one under cannon for Shiva though.
“I got a clip that will show both I think” It took a bit of searching but he did have Midway, that scene where they dive-bombed the carriers, unrealistic as it was, should do the trick.
__________________________________________________________________________________
It had been a long while since Sapphire had last slept on dragonback. She did feel a little sorry for Arch and Baron, having flown through the night, but they wanted to make a small town by nightfall today.
“Good morning sleepy head" Tirox teased as Sapphire got up, instantly regretting the decision as she was hit in the face with the ice-cold wind. Laying back down she was sheltered behind Canabrera, who still appeared to be sleeping. “Or maybe not” Tirox went again with a chuckle.
“Shuus, it’s cold” Sapphire replied pulling up her bedroll tighter.
“Ain’t that the truth” It came from Dakota who had apparently decided to take cover behind Sapphire during the night. “What time is it?”
“Too early" It came from Balthon who was one notch further down the line, clearly not happy either.
“What do you think they are doing back home?” Dakota asked.
“Don’t know. Probably nice and warm though” Sapphire responded.
“I take it you don’t do much cold weather training?” Tirox responded in an obnoxiously optimistic tone. Couldn't he just let them complain in peace? “I was wondering, you're Sapphire right?”
“Yup that’s me” Sapphire replied in an annoyed tone. He knew that they had all introduced themselves already.
“As in Sapphire Rayland? The one who took the tonselra championship, what was that… 15 years ago?”
“Yup to that one too” That was a new one, she couldn’t remember the last time somebody had recognized her. Not that there had been many chances for anyone to do so in the last decade.
“No way, my sister played against you then!” Sapphire rolled over to look at him. He had her attention now.
“What was she called?”
“Nuory, she only made it to the quarter-finals where you knocked her out” Sapphire needed to have a think on that one it was a long time ago.
“I do remember she was pretty damn good too, what happened to her in the end, did she keep playing?” There was a clear ping of sorrow in Tirox at that one for some reason.
“Oh, she… she died the next year competing, made it to the semis that year” Triox went, faultless optimism cracking under what was clearly a big loss to him.
“I’m sorry to hear that… don’t wanna pry but…”
“Hit a pole and broke a wing. Snapped her neck when she hit the ground, she didn’t even scream” Triox replied with a shrug. “Just a stupid mistake”
Sapphire laid her head back down looking up into the clouds attempting to remember. She could remember the match against her well enough, she didn’t have time to look at her opponent though. All she remembered was that it had been a close call. She had seen accidents as well, of course, that was the reason she took Dakota up on her offer. She didn’t want to be next to be carried off the field.
“You're not going back to compete again are you?” He sounded concerned, she guessed that was more than understandable.
“Nah never, those days are over. Besides I would be better at archery these days.”
“You a good shot then?” Oh, he had no clue how good.
“So good I wouldn't be allowed to compete in most competitions,” Sapphire replied with a cocky smile and a chuckle. It was true of course, there wasn’t much point in having her shoot at some target 100 meters downrange, that would just get real boring real quick.
“Udanti, got one who thinks she’s a good shot” ‘this might be good fun’ Sapphire thought to herself getting up. The wind hadn’t changed its mind about being so cold though so she laid back down again. No one else got up so she was clearly not alone in that decision.
“I heard you well enough, I’ll whip her arse once we are on the ground don’t you worry” It came from below, Sapphire guessed her challenger had slept in the belly netting then.
Dakota rolled over to look at Sapphire. “Destroy her” Dakota whispered, the two of them had a little competition for who could put on the most devilish smile.
It had been another quiet day of flying. As the sun was starting to have an effect they passed Hookbill Gorge, which was quite the spectacle. Supposedly it had once been the home of a dragon calling himself Hookbill who would raid and plunder traders and keeps in the area. That was centuries ago but the name had stuck. The gorge itself was more like two mountains protruding for kilometers up into the sky. The cloud cover had obscured the bases so it looked more like two massive slender spikes that they flew between. Sapphire had almost expected something nasty to detach from the towering peaks and make a break for them but nothing happened.
Vulzan had brought out another game for them to try. Sapphire hadn’t seen it before it was apparently called jump claw. It was a small board where you would stick wooden pegs into the holes which made up the track. then a spinning wheel in the center was used to determine how far you could move. if you passed someone else's peg they went back to the start. First to get all their pegs home won.
It was a simple yet fun game, even if only four could play. That didn’t mean you couldn’t cheer the others on while you waited for your turn.
They had made it to the small town of Ylditz before nightfall where Archeon and Baron could sleep and eat. They would set up a more comfortable camp with actual tents and a campfire. Lighting a fire on Archeon’s back wasn’t exactly possible but next to him while he slept was more than welcomed by the venerable dragon.
It was an idyllic little town, buildings all strewn around the central keep. Sapphire put the population at around 150 maybe 200 so it was a lot bigger than their home and there was obviously safety in numbers. The keep could hold everyone in a pinch but for the most part, they slept in their houses.
They had just about finished setting up camp on the outside of the little village and begun to go over the plan one last time. Udanti had come up behind them a few of the escorts following along at her heels.
“So archer girl. Ready for a spanking?”Udanti seemed very sure of herself, head held high and ear perked. Her tone was more teasing than malicious though, this was just a friendly competition. She was an older dragonette than Sapphire, probably somewhere between her and Dakota. “I see you got a proper bow as well, afraid yours couldn’t cut it?”
Sapphire had been scheming with Balethon and Dakota to make this as fun as possible. For starters, she was holding Dakotas bow, with Baltheon hanging on to her real one Dakota made a quick getaway to get on with her part of the plan.
There wasn’t much prospect of interesting things happening so the archer's duel was the evening's only attraction apart from the local tavern so most of them were gathered around. Sapphire didn’t mind a crowd though. Hashaw was currently perched atop Baron’s head watching with interest.
“Just don’t cry when you lose,” Sapphire replied confidently as ever.
“Wanna pick a target and go first or shall I?”
“Why don’t you start”
“Very well” Udanti nocked an arrow in her bow “Range to that tree with the cleft trunk. What do you say... 80 meters?”
“Yeah thereabouts,” it was a far target, Saph would give her that. “What are we shooting over?”
“A round at the tavern?”
“Sure thing.”
“One in the center of the cleft and one in each branch,” she stated confidently. Then she drew and fired 3 arrows in rapid succession. She was almost as fast as Sapphire when it came to rate of fire and she hit her targets which was very impressive and every shot was perfectly centered. There was a good chance she used magic to guide them then. This just got interesting. She seemed very pleased with herself as she turned to Sapphire expectantly.
“Not bad, my turn” She might have hit, but she lacked flair, something Sapphire knew a thing or two about. It helped a lot when competing to be a crowd-pleaser, at least if you wanted a decent meal that night.
Sapphire nocked an arrow in Dakota’s bow, drew and fired normally using only the slightest hint of magic to land the arrow right in the center of the cleft, swearing a bit she didn’t manage to break Udanti’s arrow, that would have been awesome. Then she drew another and pretended to sneeze as she fired sending the arrow low skimming across the grass before it miraculously pulled up burying deep into the left branch. To much oohing and aahing from the crowd. Sapphire smiled a bit to herself as she continued her shenanigans.
“Oh, that was lucky wonder what happens if I” Sapphire loosed another arrow deliberately aiming high and doing her best to seem surprised by the shot. She then carefully guided it back down on target, landing squarely in the right branch. Three perfect hits.
“Gods dammit” Udanti protested, clearly not pleased. Sapphire was far from done though.
“Huh, would you look at that… Baltheon real bow” Sapphire demanded switching tone, holding out her hand looking sternly at Udanti.
Sapphire swung her hand above her head, that being the planned signal for Dakota who came flying overhead and began dropping four of the pieces of firewood she had borrowed from the pile for the campfire.
Sapphire drew and fired in rapid succession nailing all four pieces, one by one. The power of her new bow ensured the arrows hit before she needed to send the next one. She might be good, but guiding two at the same time was still beyond her. By the time all targets were hit the first one hadn’t even reached the ground yet. As the last of them came down Sapphire turned and bowed to her audience with a flourish.
“I told you she was good” Archeon went in a very serious voice. “That’s gonna cost you a beer.” Of course, the trader was more worried about the monetary costs, Sapphire mused to herself shaking her head a bit.
“Yeah yeah, she got any more of those pieces up there” Udanti questioned, Sapphire just nodded “Very well” Udanti raised her hand doing the signal and Dakota came around again and began dropping more pieces.
Udanti raised her bow and fired, hitting the first one, but she was slow on her follow up shot, spending time leading the target before firing. She was good, no question about that, but Sapphire was rather confident right now. The second shot hit as well but by the time her third left the bow, Sapphire had already finished. As Udanti took aim at the last target she didn’t have time to lead it and she just fired early hoping for the best. The arrow went way high and Sapphire could see it starting to curve in flight, no doubt about using magic then. It wasn’t enough though as the arrow went flying over the firewood and off into the woods downrange.
“Dammit… You spend too much time practicing” Udanti conceded, she was gracious in defeat and Sapphire had to give her that especially after just having lost an arrow.
“What can I say? It’s my job” Sapphire went, running a finger through the tuft of soft fur on her crown.
“What kind of bow is that though, that thing shoots like crazy”
“Oh this little thing.” Sapphire went brandishing her weapon “It’s just one of Tom’s creations, in time he might sell you one.” That obviously caught both Archeon and Vulzan’s attention. Hashaw too came over with her best archer, a quiet woman named Laetho, at least Sapphire thought that was what she was called, she hadn’t actually said yet.
After a short demonstration, as well as a personal best for Vulzan in terms of draw weight, he was ready to order a dozen already. Hashaw hadn’t made an attempt to get her bow so she guessed Tom had agreed to her demand of receiving the design then. Hopefully, he had gotten paid for that.
“What about this one then surely more could be made” Vulzan tried in vain.
“I can’t do that and you know it. This is a prototype” Sapphire revelled in using the fancy word which no one except the trio from the keep understood. “It means it is the first one ever and it’s mine.” She stated proudly as she slung it over her back where it belonged, tapping it daintily.
__________________________________________________________________________________
ko-fi for those feeling generous
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So the story continues, I hope you enjoyed it. If so do let me know down below, as well as what you would like to see more of, any favorite moments, characters, or questions.
If there is something you don't like do also please let me know for improvement the problems must be known. Until next time though, have an awesome day.

what card games use dice video

These 7 dice games are easy to learn and you can really play them everywhere. Whether you are at home, in a bar or sitting on a train, you can just grab your dice and start playing! All you need is some time, a couple of friends and a number of dice. You might also need a pen and paper to keep track of the score – when you play you want to ... GAMES WITH TWO DICE Here are three games, all very different, using two dice each. Mexico A simple but exciting game, with an unusual way of keeping ”score”. For 2–6 players. You will in addition to the two dice need one extra die per player (or keep score using coins or paper and pencil). In 1992, a four-man team got the ball rolling with Amiga hit Pinball Dreams – the starting point for the games of DICE. Almost thirty years have passed since that game and we have created a lot to be proud about during that time. Yahtzee is a classic dice game that uses five 6-sided dice. It’s easy to learn, quick to play, and accommodates any number of players. There’s a reason it’s been so popular for decades! Number of players: 1 or more. Equipment required: Five 6-sided dice; score cards. Having a simple deck of playing cards or some dice opens up a huge world of fun and challenging games that can be played pretty much anywhere, including a bar. We have a ton of articles and resources about different types of card games, as well as games that can be played with dice and dominoes. @ilkkachu and yet many of the most popular board games use dice for movement. From Monopoly and Ludo to stuff like Hero Quest or D&D inspired board games. In addition, 3d4 will mean a high tendency for an average and thus reduce the wild swings you might get (e.g., getting 2 or 12 using 2d6). – VLAZ May 8 '19 at 9:42 You can improve your winning chances by doing one of several things. Firstly, you should never gamble with money that you cannot afford to Card Games That Use Dice lose. Always quit when you are ahead and never gamble to win back any losses. This game uses both dice and cards to keep groups of various sizes entertained for hours. Reviewers can’t get enough of the fun, educational gameplay. Fill or Bust can be played by two to nine people, and it’s best suited for players ages 9 and up. With the game, you’ll get six dice, 54 cards, and instructions, all in a compact and portable box. Cards and dice have been used in games of chance for thousands of years. There are literally hundreds of card and dice games. Rules can differ in the same game played by two different families living next door to each other. Before playing a game of either cards or dice, it's wise to review the rules with your ...

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10 Pieces of 6 Sided D6 Dice Ace King Queen Jack 10 9 for ...

This "How to play" channel is a resource for you that will help you learn the rules to games quickly and concisely. Or, if you're like me, you might get tired of always explaining the same rules ... Zee takes a look at this follow-up to the award-winning game of delivering potions and pushing your luck!Buy great games at http://www.coolstuffinc.comFind m... Have a spectator roll 3 dice. Count out cards equal to the sum of the dice. Then remove the middle value dice. From the smaller deck, count out cards equal t... 10 Pieces of 6 Sided D6 Dice Ace King Queen Jack 10 9 for Poker Gaming Card Game Dices Liar's Dice gamesGet it here: https://dvdo.in/deep/_AYDapH/33021753956... Tutorial video on how to play street dice,, play in your school and on the streets Tom Vasel takes a look at this game. And gives tips to designers on things to avoid when designing games. 00:00 - Introduction 05:00 - Game overview 14:17 - ... Videos from the Dice Tower podcast, reviews of games, top 100 list, and more! Tom Vasel loves games, and his kids join him for the fun! For more info, check out my website, www.dicetower.com. Tom, Sam, and Zee talk about ten great games to play when you all want to get along. Or not. :) 00:00 - Introduction 09:24 - #10 12:18 - #9 15:06 - #8 17:53 ... Lo dice is a popular porch betting game where each player bets an amount and rolls to get the highest score. Find out how to play lo dice, also known as cee-... Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Card Games That Use Dice - mimararayan.com

what card games use dice

what card games use dice - win

Random Acts of CCG - YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!

Adopt me Board Game my daughter and I designed. We use task cards and dice to make things happen/decide what you get for eggs. It’s a blast especially when you start trading

Doubling Dice. A card from the game Mythgard that I 'converted' into MtG to see what the comunity think of it. Sorry if I used non-standard syntax on it, don't really play MtG.

[/r/rpg] What are some good solo rpg card games that use dice?

What's the most fun game you know/have created using just a standard deck of playing cards and dice?

Pokemon Nursery - A Wingspan Retheme Tabletop Simulator Mod

Why I'm Long GME

THANK-YOU FOR YOUR SACRIFICE - BANS AND UPDATES