Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye

[kristof65]

mad at myself. 

Lost it on a customer. 

Specifically, I lost it on my problem child with the multiple sites worth of obsolete tellers.  He's been down for nearly a week now after a lightning storm went through and took out two of his sites.   Was trying to help him fix one of them yet again, but the method we were trying to use to remotely connect into his site wasn't working because his Windows PC didn't have the proper driver installed for a USB to serial convertor, and I couldn't find a driver for it. 

He started whining about how we need to get this fixed because he's down, and after hearing him say that like four times in a row when I kept trying to restate the problem, I got harsh and told him I'd been telling him for ten years stuff like this was going to happen more and more with his obsolete dial up based equipment. Only not that nice. 

 

Mad because up until today, I'd always managed to say the "I told you so" more diplomatically.  At least I managed not to cuss. 

On the upside, he did tell me that the rents have gotten too high at three of his five locations (he owns one location outright, and leases the car wash building at four gas stations), and so he's not going to renew his leases and close those locations. 

That's good because it takes three of those obsolete tellers out of service.  But it's also bad because it gives him three tellers worth of parts to keep his other four tellers working. 

Told our salesman that if I find myself passing through that town, I'm likely to visit all of those sites with a high voltage cattle prod to hasten the demise of those tellers. 

 

[TripleH]

[Corsair]

A couple of pics of our travel last week to see our nephew and his family. Uncle Corsair got lots of hugs and even got to hold our newest greatniece Nora for a bit when Lady Corsair didn't have her!

[Green Eyed Monsty]

1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

mad at myself. 

Lost it on a customer. 

Specifically, I lost it on my problem child with the multiple sites worth of obsolete tellers.  He's been down for nearly a week now after a lightning storm went through and took out two of his sites.   Was trying to help him fix one of them yet again, but the method we were trying to use to remotely connect into his site wasn't working because his Windows PC didn't have the proper driver installed for a USB to serial convertor, and I couldn't find a driver for it. 

He started whining about how we need to get this fixed because he's down, and after hearing him say that like four times in a row when I kept trying to restate the problem, I got harsh and told him I'd been telling him for ten years stuff like this was going to happen more and more with his obsolete dial up based equipment. Only not that nice. 

 

Mad because up until today, I'd always managed to say the "I told you so" more diplomatically.  At least I managed not to cuss. 

On the upside, he did tell me that the rents have gotten too high at three of his five locations (he owns one location outright, and leases the car wash building at four gas stations), and so he's not going to renew his leases and close those locations. 

That's good because it takes three of those obsolete tellers out of service.  But it's also bad because it gives him three tellers worth of parts to keep his other four tellers working. 

Told our salesman that if I find myself passing through that town, I'm likely to visit all of those sites with a high voltage cattle prod to hasten the demise of those tellers. 

 

[TGP]

3 hours ago, kristof65 said:

mad at myself. 

Lost it on a customer. 

Specifically, I lost it on my problem child with the multiple sites worth of obsolete tellers

Maybe finally hearing the frustration from you will motivate the feller. 
 

 

3 hours ago, kristof65 said:

That's good because it takes three of those obsolete tellers out of service.  But it's also bad because it gives him three tellers worth of parts to keep his other four tellers working.

Next time you have contact just straight up tell him (emphasize the good) that his only practical source of spare parts is to cannibalize his own equipment. 
 

 

Also maybe the three sites he is thinking of closing — perhaps they’ll be acquired by different owners with the capital to install newer gear. 

Edited August 24, 2022 by TGP

[kristof65]

2 hours ago, TGP said:

Maybe finally hearing the frustration from you will motivate the feller. 
 

Next time you have contact just straight up tell him (emphasize the good) that his only practical source of spare parts is to cannibalize his own equipment. 
 

Also maybe the three sites he is thinking of closing — perhaps they’ll be acquired by different owners with the capital to install newer gear. 

Man, I hope it motivates him.  I think part of his motivation for not renewing his leases is that he knows that he's out of spare parts options.  A few weeks ago I found out another owner of these tellers finally tore theirs out and scrapped them, and I told this guy that made him the last owner of multiple tellers.  If my count is right, we're down to 12, and this guy owns eight of them. 

I was viewing the Google street view photos of the locations, and I am betting at least two of them will be razed.  Probably replaced with a Starbucks.  (I say that because I know of at least three car wash sites that have been replaced by Starbucks in the last few years).

On to other things - remember that big tangled star map I was working on?  I finally figured out a method of mapping that I'm happy with, and a means of presentation.  I have my first three maps done - only 30 more to go:


And with those done, I figured out how I'm going to present them. Here's a test page:


Those pages are going to go into a book like this one:


These are custom 12 page primer books I made for the campaign with all the basic details the players need to know to start before we start next month.  The only map there is the star system the campaign is starting in. Decided my opening scene is going to be the PCs all gathered as guests at a wedding on a O'Neill cylinder space habitat. The bulk of session one will be them chatting with other guests at the wedding reception.  In addition to all the juicy "gossip" (read: adventure hooks that I wrote up) they'll hear/overhear from other guests, I went through IMDB and grabbed a couple pages of quotes from famous wedding movies to intersperse with those.  

I'm almost positive one of those quotes will end up being an adventure hook I didn't anticipate, but then, that's half the fun.   Halfway through the reception (I think as the cake is being cut, in fact), terrorists will attack the habitat by blowing the fusion reactors on three ships in port.  The rest of the adventure will be extracting themselves from the chaos and escaping on a ship (likely with the help of a fellow wedding guest, and new patron who happens to run the local shipyard).  IF the adventure goes as planned, the PCs should end up commandeering an almost completed, but now lightly damaged starship under construction. The ship doesn't have a name, their patron will simply refer to it as Hull A67-5309, a 300 dton Luminous Class Trader - he'll grant them a salvage title to the ship if they complete a mission for him

Wait, I digressed - anyway, the maps and system data are going to go into a book I'm going to call Supplement 1 Cethalaran Directorate. Decided I'm going to try and lump all of my campaign data into various books like this. Already have my templates set up in Word, Publisher and Campaign Cartographer, and a document to help me track my book titles and their contents and formatting rules. Supplement 1 is just the threads and worlds of the Directorate.  Book 1 is The Worlds of the Tangle, which will have ALL the maps/world data. Supplement 2 is going to be on the Luminous Traders - have to redo my deck plans for that, though.  I might do a Special Supplement 1 - Hull A67-5309 that will be specific to the PCs ship. 

[Pegazus]

@kristof65 After ReaperCon, if you have the time, toss me some sketches of what the ship looks like. Can CAD up the hull and get some technical schematics that were left onboard.

[kristof65]

19 minutes ago, Pegazus said:

@kristof65 After ReaperCon, if you have the time, toss me some sketches of what the ship looks like. Can CAD up the hull and get some technical schematics that were left onboard.

That would be great, but let's talk at ReaperCon, and I'll show you what I've got so far. 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

1 hour ago, kristof65 said:

Man, I hope it motivates him.  I think part of his motivation for not renewing his leases is that he knows that he's out of spare parts options.  A few weeks ago I found out another owner of these tellers finally tore theirs out and scrapped them, and I told this guy that made him the last owner of multiple tellers.  If my count is right, we're down to 12, and this guy owns eight of them. 

I was viewing the Google street view photos of the locations, and I am betting at least two of them will be razed.  Probably replaced with a Starbucks.  (I say that because I know of at least three car wash sites that have been replaced by Starbucks in the last few years).

On to other things - remember that big tangled star map I was working on?  I finally figured out a method of mapping that I'm happy with, and a means of presentation.  I have my first three maps done - only 30 more to go:


And with those done, I figured out how I'm going to present them. Here's a test page:


Those pages are going to go into a book like this one:


These are custom 12 page primer books I made for the campaign with all the basic details the players need to know to start before we start next month.  The only map there is the star system the campaign is starting in. Decided my opening scene is going to be the PCs all gathered as guests at a wedding on a O'Neill cylinder space habitat. The bulk of session one will be them chatting with other guests at the wedding reception.  In addition to all the juicy "gossip" (read: adventure hooks that I wrote up) they'll hear/overhear from other guests, I went through IMDB and grabbed a couple pages of quotes from famous wedding movies to intersperse with those.  

I'm almost positive one of those quotes will end up being an adventure hook I didn't anticipate, but then, that's half the fun.   Halfway through the reception (I think as the cake is being cut, in fact), terrorists will attack the habitat by blowing the fusion reactors on three ships in port.  The rest of the adventure will be extracting themselves from the chaos and escaping on a ship (likely with the help of a fellow wedding guest, and new patron who happens to run the local shipyard).  IF the adventure goes as planned, the PCs should end up commandeering an almost completed, but now lightly damaged starship under construction. The ship doesn't have a name, their patron will simply refer to it as Hull A67-5309, a 300 dton Luminous Class Trader - he'll grant them a salvage title to the ship if they complete a mission for him

Wait, I digressed - anyway, the maps and system data are going to go into a book I'm going to call Supplement 1 Cethalaran Directorate. Decided I'm going to try and lump all of my campaign data into various books like this. Already have my templates set up in Word, Publisher and Campaign Cartographer, and a document to help me track my book titles and their contents and formatting rules. Supplement 1 is just the threads and worlds of the Directorate.  Book 1 is The Worlds of the Tangle, which will have ALL the maps/world data. Supplement 2 is going to be on the Luminous Traders - have to redo my deck plans for that, though.  I might do a Special Supplement 1 - Hull A67-5309 that will be specific to the PCs ship. 

I've got a name for the ship, PHANTOM, inspired by that classic truck driving song "Phantom 309".

And there's another little tidbit to work into a story line.

Here's the true story the song is based on, spoilered because it's part of the Iowa 80 Truckstop website:

Spoiler

https://iowa80truckingmuseum.com/press-release/phantom309/

And here's the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCeVP9WuA6I

 

GEM

Edited August 25, 2022 by Green Eyed Monsty
Twin Stick Tentacles

[Sylverthorne]

Now I'm thinking back to the setting in The Sparrow Hill Ghost and wondering what kinds of ship ghosts you might get... 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

3 minutes ago, Sylverthorne said:

Now I'm thinking back to the setting in The Sparrow Hill Ghost and wondering what kinds of ship ghosts you might get... 

Since it's supposed to be an uncompleted ship, I'm guessing the ghosts of shipbuilders who died in a catastrophic accident during construction.

GEM

[haldir]

Semi-frustrating night at the FLGS, but overall a fun night. Seems like the Richard"head" is now at our table, which doesn't sit very well with one of the players, as those 2 do not like either other one bit. I hate it as the guy has been my friend almost from the beginning of playing at the FLGS. Overall thou, "head" kept is ok, I mean there were some times he reverted to his annoying self, but overall he was a decent player. My frustration in this was, I use Cursed Crypt tiles for my map. Ok, I drew a overall map on 1 tile for the players & I set that on the table since the table we get to use isn't large & couple of players use card mats for their stuff, it reduces the space even more. I mean yes, I think all rpg tables suffer from not enough table space, but that isn't problem here, what is, is I had part of a room on a tile & then when I drew the other part on anther tile, I sat it on top of the overall map. Some reason everyone but a couple people couldn't figure out it was just a continuation of the room & thought it was something different (elevated room? No way we can get into the next part of the room, etc etc), I kinda showed my emotion a bit over it. It wasn't yelling volume, just a raised voice saying "How can you not see this?" kinda question.

 

I think one of the problems is the adventures in the AL series we are running, the author Chris Valentine, is a great adventure writer, he just puts too much into AL adventures. Most are written to be ran in 2 to 4 hr time slots, his are 4 to 6. I had to cut down a bunch of encounters & for the final one I add the boss (a flind) & her minions rushing into the room that already had encounters in it (ie they heard the noise), as I didn't want to continue this adventure into the month of September + it would come after ReaperCon.

 

Also tonight we ran with 8 players, one over the AL max & also 2 over my personal limit, so thing bogged down a bit. Players tend to wander off as far as socializing. Couple of players were discussing things missed on a character, so they weren't paying attention to the game situation. I'm pretty lenient when it comes to "oh, I missed this ability, can I use it." - NP, just remember next time - kinda thing.

 

I enjoy my players, just some nights it can be frustrating & hopefully Richard"head" behaves enough not to upset the entire table next time.

9 hours ago, TripleH said:

 

[Chaoswolf]

[Cygnwulf]

9 hours ago, kristof65 said:

I told this guy that made him the last owner of multiple tellers.  If my count is right, we're down to 12, and this guy owns eight of them. 

There was your mistake, you've only encouraged him to be the last person to run even one of them.

[TGP]

55 minutes ago, Cygnwulf said:

10 hours ago, kristof65 said:

I told this guy that made him the last owner of multiple tellers.  If my count is right, we're down to 12, and this guy owns eight of them. 

There was your mistake, you've only encouraged him to be the last person to run even one of them.

Get him to buy out the other four, and those guys can use the proceeds of selling their old obsolete models to upgrade to newer machines. 
 

Then you’ll just have one last Mohican.