Hello,
I've set up a FREE league on ESPN for this upcoming season. but I'm having a tough time filling it out with players who are good at or serious enough about fantasy football.
It's a custom league. So, if that's not your thing, I'll understand. A few details about this league: 10 teams, no D/STs. Each team will start 2 QB/3 RB/3 W2 TE/1 DT/2 DE/3 LB/2 CB/2 Safeties/ 2 K/2 P/1 HC and it will have 15 bench spots. You will have 90 seconds to make a pick during the draft.
The scoring is custom (obviously). If you want to join and have any suggestions about the scoring or settings, I'll listen to new thoughts/ideas. There are 5 open spaces left (for now).
DM if you're interested or want more information.

Hello everyone,We have started planning our summer trip again, and this time we have decided to explore the northwest of America.We have created a first draft of the trip ourselves, but we would like to receive your feedback based on your experiences. For us, it's the first time in this area, so everything is new to us. You might notice immediately that we haven't included any cities in the itinerary. This is because we are not really interested in city visits and usually end up disappointed when walking through American cities, haha. We prefer to spend our time in nature and national parks. Besides visiting the highlights, our daily activities mainly consist of hiking trails, with no limit on the number of kilometers or difficulty level, as long as we can do it in one day. We are not fans of camping and therefore stay in hotels, etc. Advice on beautiful trails in this region is very welcome.

Day - Place start - Place to go

1. Amsterdam - Olympic NP, Port Angels (arriving in Seattle)
2. Olympic NP, Port Angels - Olympic NP, Port Angels
3. Olympic NP, Port Angels - Olympic NP, Forks
4. Olympic NP, Forks - Olympic NP, Mocilips
5. Olympic NP, Mocilips - Cannon Beach
6. Cannon Beach - Mount Rainier NP, Paradise area
7. Mount Rainier NP, Paradise area - Mount Rainier NP, Paradise area
8. Mount Rainier NP, Paradise area - Mount Rainier NP, Sunrise area
9. Mount Rainier NP, Sunrise area - Mount Rainier NP, Sunrise area
10. Mount Rainier NP, Sunrise area - North Cascade NP, Marblemount
11. North Cascade NP, Marblemount - North Cascade NP, Marblemount
12. North Cascade NP, Marblemount - Seattle
13. Seattle - Amsterdam

Following our planned route, we have a few questions:
1. Is the order of the route okay? Or would you, for example, start at North Cascade National Park, or elsewhere?
2. We have divided the nights in Olympic National Park into 2 nights in Port Angeles, 1 night in Forks, and 1 night in Mocilips. Is this a good distribution?
3. In Mount Rainier National Park, there is the Sunrise area. As far as I know, you can't sleep there. What is a good base for the Sunrise area? We were thinking of Crystal Mountain Hotels.

Keeping the Playing Field Level: How Fantasy Sports Developer Ensure Fair Gameplay

Fantasy sports are all about putting your manager skills to the test, but how do developers make sure everyone has a shot at the championship? Here's the lowdown on some key tactics:

• Standardized Scoring Systems: Most platforms use pre-determined scoring rules to keep things objective. This ensures everyone's Michael Thomas touchdown counts for the same six points (unless you have a PPR league, then it's even more glorious!).
• Blind Drafts and Auctions: Drafting players in a random order or using a blind auction helps prevent someone with the top pick from snagging all the superstars.
• Salary Caps or Stat Limits: Salary caps or limitations on certain stats (e.g., quarterbacks per team) can prevent "moneyball" situations where one player just throws money at the best options.
• Fair Play Monitoring: Developers have systems in place to detect and address collusion (secretly working together between teams) or unfair activity that disrupts the competition.
• Transparency and Communication: Clear rules, readily available scoring information, and easy-to-access help sections are all crucial for a fair and frustration-free experience.

What are your thoughts, fellow fantasy enthusiasts? Do you have any ideas on how developers can further ensure a level playing field?

I have a league that needs to be filled and here is the gist of the league. The Deputy League is made up of 32 owners, each taking over the team as it stands of a NFL team. For example, if you pick the Tennessee Titans, you will have every player on their roster, including the rookies from the 2024 draft. You are encourged to trade to your hearts desire to diversify your league. Subsequent seasons Rookie Drafts are based off the standings from the league, not real life. Everything is done to mimic the NFL to the best of our ability within the Sleeper platform. Once there are 32 paid owners(through leaguesafe), we will begin a randomized Team draft where you will choose the team that you would like. This is an official Worthless Fantasy Federation league, and we use a lot of custom settings. Custom schedules to mimic how the NFL does them. True to life Division and Conference splits. Custom playoff and consolation brackets. Payouts to more than just the winner and loser. Custom rules for stealing Taxi Squad players, a custom FAAB system to somewhat mimic salary cap. The Worthless Fantasy Federation was founded in 2022 and currently offers three 32-team dynasty leagues, multiple custom Salary Cap leagues, multiple normal Dynasty leagues, and more coming every season.
https://discord.com/invite/qcKuyZZn
http://sleeper.com/i/kQXxkzxoVAmJ

With Sunday and the Dreammaster's plan being your classic Lotus-Eater Machine plan, with Ena's Dream of Order being the forced paradise onto everyone type of deal, I was wondering how people thought it compares to similar schemes in media. Now that we had a little time to digest it.
It's a pretty common trope these days, but I will say I was surprised Honkai Star Rail pulled this one off so early in its plotline. Usually these kind of schemes are THE end goal that concludes the entire storyline of a series, rather than it being a singular arc.
For some examples in other series I can think of off the top of my head:

• Naruto with the Infinite Tsukuyomi (probably what most people here would be familiar with)
• Negima with Cosmo Entellecheia (probably one of the best long term executions of the idea imo)
• Code Geass with the Ragnarok Connection
• Honkai Impact 3rd's multiple variations of the idea
• Persona 5 had two different angles of it
• Madoka Rebellion
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance had this as the central plot conflict
• And countless other examples across all sorts of media.

Personally I thought given the limitations they had to work with, it was pretty well-done for the most part. The end goal was something a lot of folks called the moment Penacony was revealed as a dreamscape. Since that sort of setting is just prime material for this sort of thing. But I think what sets out Star Rail's version of this is the way it tied in with "heart" of the protagonists so to speak. That they centered everything so well with the ethos of Trailblazing through Mikhail and the Astral Express crew to clash with the vision of Order turned what could have easily been a pretty standard "No bad guy, people shouldn't stay in dreams, they need to live in reality!" hero debate into something genuinely compelling with themes particular to this game.
It also helps that they did a pretty damn good job of fleshing out Sunday as a character, and his voicelines in the final boss fight (particularly his spin on the Book of Genesis in the final phase) really put some other antagonists (not necessarily villains mind, there's a difference) to shame. And I really liked all the more subtle elements they used to convey this narrative, like Sunday appearing as a Conductor that guides people to his idea of happiness, while Mikhail and the Trailblaze was represntted via a clock/compass that just nudged people in the right direction, rather than dictate where they must go. I always appreciate a story that doesn't insult the audiences' intelligence and lets folks read between the lines. Despite some bugbears I have here and there, I think everything was tied together pretty nicely overall.
So I'd say it's better than a good number of other attempts, but not quite up there with say Cosmo Entellecheia from Negima. But that's with the caveat that we're comparing a manga that had literal years to build up to that plotpoint, while Honkai Star Rail had maybe 18ish hours to sell it to the player. So I think you have to give them credit for what they had to work with.
So what do you guys think of Star Rail's execution of it? Enjoyed it, didn't enjoy it? What do you think was done well, and what do you think could have been improved?

I wrote mini reviews of each arc here, but because there are so damn many arcs, this ended up being a wall of text, despite me trying to keep them short. Feel free to skim or read only what interests you!
--
The episodic nature of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla means that its narrative is split into chunks. These chunks take place across the many shires of medieval England and vary in terms of length, depth and, well, pointlessness. I thought ranking them would be a fun exercise — a competition of story arcs, all vying for best Viking mini-narrative.
It goes without saying, but I’m about to spoil the whole damn game, so read at your own risk.
--
21. Wincestre
Wincestre is just another Lunden or Jorvik, accept with more Jesus, more King Aelfred and way less… anything worthwhile. This one was just a total nothing-burger of an experience. The fact that it comes so late in the narrative really hurts it, too, because by now you’ve experienced arcs that are a similar traditional Assassin’s Creed city-style that at least aren’t this bad. Aelfred’s turning on Eivor at the end also didn’t feel coherent, convincing or warranted to me. Big miss.
20. Lunden
The smaller, denser cities with multiple targets to track down and ‘social stealth’ options are certainly here to attempt to replicate the traditional AC experience, but Lunden fails to do so meaningfully, and even gets a huge points deduction for being misleading.
The arc is set up to feature twists with Stowe and Ercke (is one a traitor? Will your romancing of Stowe make things complicated?), but after their initial scenes they’re mitigated to what I would hardly even call side characters as Eivor unveils three randos as Order members, kills them and then leaves town. At least there was a cool boss sequence on the river?
19. Snotinghamscire
This arc sees you reunite with Hemmingr Jarl, his son Villi and his compatriot, Trygve. Eivor has an existing relationship with these characters, but the player doesn’t. As a result, nothing that happens with them lands meaningfully.
After Hemmingr passes, this arc boils down to running dull errands to prepare for the burial ceremony. Eivor chooses whether Villi or Trygve will succeed Hemmingr in the end, but the decision is very clear-cut and suggested to the player, lacking the nuance of the game’s other difficult decisions. This arc isn’t memorable, doesn’t concern the main quest, and feels like fluffy filler in the worst way.
18. Jorvik
Another version of the Lunden & Wincestre arcs, Jorvik is stronger than its competitors for presenting the Order members to your face before you deduce who they are. There was nothing shocking about their reveals, but each provided an interesting set piece to navigate during assassinations.
Problematically, the arc sets itself up for Eivor to accuse a traitor, only for her decision to not matter at all. You never get to act on your accusation at Yuletide — the Order member interrupts and attacks the feast no matter who you accuse.
17. Cent
The Cent arc sees Eivor team with Basim to track Fulke. It feels important and part of the main story, but it’s all for naught in the end — you come face-to-face with Fulke in what seems like a meaningful story moment, only for her to run away. Your reward is finding out Sigurd had his arm cut off.
This arc earns some points for getting Fulke screen time and tiptoeing the tightrope of Eivor and Basim’s rocky relationship believably, but certainly can’t be called good. This is because once you pull back the veil, you realize you never advanced the plot and were running in circles for nothing the entire time. At least the other “filler” arcs were forthright about their (lack of) connection to the main story.
16. Jotunheim
This arc has a compelling story to it — Odin running from his fate and bending over backwards to flee from it is interesting, his broken relationship with Loki should be a strong point for the arc, and his moral gray areas (sleeping with a Jotunn, betraying Tyr) certainly make for a complex character’s development.
It has the ingredients of a strong arc, but I just couldn’t shake the why am I doing this feeling I had the entire time. Everything in between Odin’s big moments is a fetch quest and I just felt like I was wasting my life.
This one is weird because on paper it feels like there’s a lot of substance here, but ultimately, I felt nothing while playing it besides contempt for having drank the potion in Ravensthorpe again.
15. Lincolnscire
Heir to the throne Hunwald is exiled from Lincoln and reaches out to Ravensthorpe for help. Eivor tracks down his sickly and dying father and then must cast the deciding vote for whom the new Ealdorman will be after his death.
The game wastes your time with one of Hunwald’s competitors, Aelfgar, (who is a dork) and paints the bishop as evil pretty clearly (he turns out to be an Order member). I suppose this arc could hit hard for someone who accidently put an Order member in charge. For that and for Hunwald at least having a strong drive and personality, this arc earns some marks.
14. Essex
Eivor is brought in to repair a marriage by separating husband and wife naturally without a public divorce. She reunites Ealdorman Birstan with his former lover and sets up a fake public kidnapping to whisk away his wife, Estrid.
I think many would rate this arc far lower than I have here because it is pure side mission nonsense — but for me, this arc stands strong on the backs of convincing and fun characters in Birstan and Estrid, as well as the tangled web of relationships between the two of them, Birstan’s son, and Rollo, Estrid’s former lover.
13. Ledecestrescire
Ledecestre sees the intros of Ivarr, Ubba and Ceowulf. You team up with the sons of Ragnar to help put Ceowulf’s father on the throne in Mercia.
Ledecestrescire earns points for strong, realized characters in the Ragnarsons and Ceowulf, a believable conflict with the Mercian king, as well as the arc’s biggest moment with killing or sparing Leofrith in Tamworth.
12. Asgard
Asgard looks pretty and hits hard when you first arrive. I appreciate Ubi for creating places like Atlantis and Asgard to run around and explore in.
Unfortunately, both felt supremely empty. However, watching Odin fight tooth and nail to run from his fate was satisfying and Loki is aptly deceptive and frustrating. The Builder gave the arc a nice wrinkle, too and climaxed with a nice boss fight.
I spent too much time tracking down tears, but I think if you look at just the main missions here, this is a solid experience in an incredible environment.
11. East Anglia
In this arc, Eivor works alongside Oswald to fend off violent Dane aggressors and claim his leadership role.
Oswald is honorable and likeable — watching him teach the Danes in his court that bravery can reveal itself in more nuanced ways rather than physically was powerful, and giving Eivor the decision to allow Oswald to fight his own battles or fight for him solidified the feeling of fathering Oswald through this arc into manhood and leadership.
I bought into this arc because I felt the story was touching and meaningful and the cast was strong.
10. Vinland
Nothing really happens here aside from hunting down Gorm Kjotveson, but the arc earns major points for how refreshing it is.
I played it late in the story when I was feeling quite a bit of fatigue towards the game and everything about Vinland just landed for me, giving me new energy to actually enjoy what I was doing.
The new landscape is insanely gorgeous and fun to navigate. The stripping down of Eivor’s equipment essentially forces you to start from scratch — but it really makes the four stealth encounters stronger; you have to approach them differently due to being unarmed and unarmored.
The whole thing was a little bit of a reset button for the entire experience of Valhalla and it sorely needed it.
9. Suthsexe
Suthsexe is the meeting with Guthrum and the rising action leading up to defeating Fulke.
The arc is fun, feels impactful as well as meaningful and sees you reunite with all the old friends you’ve made up to this point. Fighting alongside Soma and others was a big positive for me. Storming Fulke’s fort at least included some different mechanics than many forts up to this point, so it felt fresh. Her boss fight in the darkness of the crypts was exceptional, as was her confession sequence.
This arc was mostly good, satisfying fun the whole way through, but didn’t include too much intrigue as the ones ranked above it did.
8. Rygjafylke
Look, I’ll be honest. I’m writing this particular paragraph after completing the game and this opening section was so long ago that I don’t have a great memory of it.
What I do know is that Valhalla opened strongly. I found it all pretty compelling. I remember it being atmospheric, believable and driven by strong characters like Sigurd, Varin, Haytham, Basim and Kyotve. I was bought-in very early and Rygjafylke really got the game off to a strong start.
7. Hamtunscire & Epilogue
Aelfred screen time is a good thing, and this arc earns marks for his badassery in the face of Guthrum, as well as his manipulation of the Dane army. Ally deaths in the battle at Chepeham give the arc meaningful stakes and ratchet up the tension. This arc is brief and straightforward — there’s not much story to it since it’s really just war throughout the whole thing.
Afterwards, Eivor tracks down the final member of the Order and confronts him in a touching sequence over some burnt bread in a small swampy town in the middle of nowhere. It’s a humble conclusion for Aelfred and the swirling epic that was AC: Valhalla.
6. Hordafylke
The return to Norway contains two things: Eivor & Sigurd finding closure with Sigurd’s father, and the two locating “Yggdrasil.”
I quite enjoyed the pit stop with Sigurd’s father, and the entire Yggdrasil sequence was incredibly interesting. It was a refreshing change of pace from what you’ve been doing for the past 100 hours and featured a nice boss fight at the end. No matter which ending you get, the conversation with Sigurd after the dust settles is impactful and weighty.
5. Oxenefordscire
Finally reunited with Sigurd, this is the arc we learn of his obsession with his ancestry and true nature. Eivor’s reaction of discomfort and distrust towards Sigurd’s change is honest and relatable and she must juggle relations between Sigurd and the Thane they are working to put in charge, Gaedric.
Negotiations with King Aelfred are complex and a late intervention from Fulke reveals her true allegiance to the Order and puts Sigurd in enemy hands.
This arc moves the plot along moreso than the last 400 hours you’ve been playing the game, while also establishing and reinterpreting Eivor’s relations with the cast in meaningful ways. It ratchets up the tension of the main quest and narrative, which up to this point had been lagging behind due to a breadth of shire arcs.
4. Glowecestrecire
I’m so surprised to see myself rank this so high — after the first third of the arc, I was considering putting it in dead last. I felt Gunnar’s fiancé’s unintelligible dialogue, the trick-or-treating, the druid encounter, and Eivor’s 400th drunken night of debauchery to be a disrespectful waste of my time this deep (over 80 hours) into the game.
But then the arc turned, with two solid stealth encounters and a stellar boss fight. Navigating the Aelfwood was a gorgeous thrill and the confrontation with Modran is atmospheric and a fantastically fresh take on the typical Valhalla boss or mini boss fight.
When I decided to focus-up on the story and let the Celtic and Welsh mythos shine, the arc became a terrestrial fever dream of satisfying magic, intrigue and character interactions.
3. Grantebridgescire
Eivor looks to ally with Soma, the leader of Grantebridge, but her town’s just been sacked from the inside by a traitor. After saving her three companions in the thick river bogs, you take back Grantebridge and then embark on an investigation to discover the rat.
Its the investigation that makes the whole arc. It has a slew of clues, nuance and red herrings to consider. One of its strengths is how open ended the investigation is — you can follow the quest markers, but talking to the town’s people and hunting down the yellow-painted ship is up to you (at least I think, I played on the most ‘difficult’ exploration setting).
This arc earns big points because the investigation matters — you have to tell Soma to kill one of her closest friends and then watch her do it, living with your right or wrong decision.
2. Eurvicscire
Finally meeting the third of the famed Ragnarson’s, Eivor finds Halfdan a paranoid soul, waxing poetic about friendship and treason. The arc balances the two on a blade’s edge to tremendous effect.
Halfdan believes he has a traitor in his midst and the main culprit is his right-hand man, Faravid.
Faravid's dialogue is expertly written to feign allegiance to Halfdan, but never reveal too much of his true nature. Eivor’s wavering relationship and trust with him are complex and the Wolf-Kissed can lie to both him and Halfdan depending on dialogue choice. Every decision feels like it carries weight. It’s this ambiguity that makes the arc compelling and gives the decisions importance.
This arc could feel disconnected (it’s not part of the main plot and Halfdan doesn’t appear in the late game, no matter your decision) and thus appear as pointless fluff, but I won’t fault it for that. As a self-contained story, this was flat-out interesting and kept me in anticipation of the next reveal or twist. Imagery and foreshadowing, red-herrings, and great atmosphere all make for an engaging and compelling experience. I only wish every shire arc could’ve reached these heights.
1. Sciropscire
Sciropescire’s strengths come somewhat from the arcs that came before it, as it sees Eivor quickly reunited and working with Ivarr and Ceowulf. Your preexisting relationship with both gives this arc an advantage over others where it doesn’t have to establish too much all at once, as well as it starting off with you already having a personal connection of some sort with the main cast. Still, each set piece here is strong enough on its own –

1. Eivor & co. join to negotiate peace with King Rhodri. She can offer 600 silver to whomever she chooses to try and quell the peace talks. Each option is mired in obscurity, has obvious pros and cons, and plenty of uncertainty. It felt impactful, difficult and nuanced.
2. After peace talks go sour with Ivarr’s outburst, Eivor, Ivarr and Ceowulf sack a village under Rhodri’s control. It’s brutal and takes a long time to burn (on purpose!). You then fight a huge party of Rhodri’s men. The whole scene feels vile, over the top and harsh (on purpose!).
3. The twist is that Ivarr kills Ceowulf in cold blood to earn himself the opportunity to get his own revenge on Rhodri — only revealed after you sack Rhodri’s fort (after reaching peace with him). A brutal blood eagle from Ivarr and the game’s best boss fight ensue.

It’s close between the top 3, but this is the best arc in the game, for me.
For once, the game forces you to face the trail of bloodshed and destruction your ‘pacifying’ of England has left in your wake. Additionally, the ambiguous decision-making process in negotiating peace, the brutal village burning sequence, the tangled web of Ivarr’s relationships and motivations, the twists of the peaceful alliance and Rhodri’s fate, and finally, the Ivarr boss fight are just too good all in tandem to not take first place.
--
I’m conflicted looking back on these.
There’s many that feel even more empty than I remember them being now that I draft them as text. However, a surprising number of highly-rated arcs aren’t actually part of the main quest.
Ultimately, I’m left bewildered at the scale and scope of the epic that this game took me on. I was so fatigued by the end of it, but in hindsight so happy I completed it.

There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

Hiya! I am looking for long term rp partners!
A little about me- I live in Germany and tend to be free most of the time, though I will probably just let you know if I am busy for a while. Other than gaming I am pretty much free all the time or I have fallen asleep :).
I am open to any ideas, I really like fantasy stuff or roleplaying as characters from videogames! I recently got too much into Baldurs gate 3 so a roleplay inspired by that game would be great not gonna lie!
I prefer longer texts but I am also fine with one liners from time to time, so everyone is welcome to chat and roleplay with me!
Also if you don’t have any ideas we can come up with something together and see what we both might like!
Please don’t be weird, I just want to have a fun RP partner and not a creep. I have my boundaries and I’ll let you know if you’re going too far. Also let me know about your own boundaries please!
Communication is key! If you just need to leave for a while and don’t know when you will be back, just tell me and I will understand. Life is priority number one after all!
Anyways I am hoping to hear from you soon, see you in the DMs!
Anyone else reading this, have a nice day/night!

I was curious if any public defenders are incorporating AI into their practice. The reason I ask is because I am an attorney (transactional background -- it sucks, but pays the bills) and I recently had to deal with a somewhat complex New York Family Court motion involving issues that didn't have a vast number of appellate cases, but enough to establish clear legal precedents and demonstrate that I was being railroaded by this fucking Family Court system. Unfortunately, I was unable to afford the retainer fees that other attorneys demanded and was struggling to find representation. I had reached out to numerous law firms and nonprofits, but they were either not accepting new cases, denied my case, or the attorneys were retired or in the process of retiring. This specific area of Family Court law leaves out a large portion of people who can't pay a $20k retainer or make too much to get representation through the nonprofits.
Given the circumstances, I decided to prepare the best possible motion on my own. I had a template for the filing format, but needed additional case law support to strengthen my arguments/facts. That's where Claude came in. I provided Claude with hundreds of cases and instructed it to extract any arguments that were relevant to my case and had similar fact patterns. Since I didn't have access to Family Law on Westlaw or guidance in NYC, I used Judy Records, Google, and Casetext for most of my research. I repeated the feeding of relevant cases for all the other issues I wanted to address in the motion.
Using the summary generated by Claude, I then guided the AI in drafting the motion, directing it to incorporate case law and citations that supported my arguments from point X to point Y in the argument section. The first draft was somewhat shit and veered all over the place, but it had great arguments and support. I went through and rewrote things paragraph by paragraph to get things more concise. Overall, the process took me a few weekends to figure out the law behind the Family Court Act that my case was under since there were a lot of nuances, but most of those nuances were explained in guidance online or appellate cases.
I am well aware of the previous instances where attorneys relied on GPT for court filings, despite the well-known fact that GPT had a propensity to make shit up (hallucinate, as they call it). If you asked GPT for a case about a race car driver who murdered 10 poodles, it would miraculously provide a case with those exact details. The bigger problem, in my opinion, is that we should have been shown the OJ video about Shepardizing or given similar warnings during our FIRST year of law school, which makes me question the overall competence of those attorneys.
However, with the advancements in AI, citation issues are no longer a major concern. Out of the approximately 15 cases cited in my motion, there were only two that I couldn't initially locate. I later discovered one of the citations in a practice guide I had uploaded, even though the case was not easily accessible online. The other citation was inaccurate because I felt it didn't fully support my argument, and the case, in general, was very unfavorable to me as the Respondent.
After years of battling with Family Court, I finally prevailed in my motion -- and AI wrote 80% of my motion, helped with other filings, and scrubbed all the cases for information that was relevant. Also, I was able to take a crash course in this specific area of family law, which is just a weird but not too robust area of law.
I believe AI holds a lot of potential for handling the backend work in public defender offices, freeing up PDs to focus on other critical aspects of their cases and have an assistant that helps them with all aspects of a case, including reminders and updates. (The Microsoft AI sucks, btw. Do not let your offices get it or I think you will be very disappointed in the abilities of AI.) The potential for efficiency for PDs to handle their cases a little more easily seems great, but I wanted to get input on what others think.
Going through this whole process has been a real eye-opener for me, making me realize just how fucking ridiculous the NY state family courts are, just like all those articles have been saying. On the bright side, it felt pretty damn good to legally slap the shit out of the Petitioner after all the crap they've put me through. When the Petitioner responded to my motion, they didn't even bother using a single legal case or precedent to back up their argument. Instead, they resorted to attacking my misuse of a word a couple of times. AI and I whipped up a response in just a couple of hours, calling out how desperate it is to nitpick word usage in a pro se filing when they clearly don't have any legal support for their position. Man, I wish I could dish out these kinds of smackdowns in my day-to-day work.
It's about time I change jobs and do something that lets me legally fight against these bullshit systems instead of helping douchebag companies buy and sell each other. I enjoyed the writing battle and how I knew my shit by the time I appeared for that motion. It feels great to finally have won this bullshit battle, and I wouldn't have been able to write and research so quickly without AI (Claude, specifically, as GPT didn't work well for legal writing or case citations, with a little bit of help from the Gemini AIStudio version).
Ok... that's my long, throwaway account post. I hope others begin taking advantage of AI. Thank you for all the work you do! Hopefully I can transition to something more aligned with PD work or reforming this fucked up NY family court.

Hi guys!
First time following the draft combine for me as I'd really like to see how Ajay Mitchell performs. He's one of the most exciting Belgian players we've seen in a very long time. We didn't have any player in the big league since Mbenga (who played what? 2 minutes per game on average?) and next year we're probably going to have a second one after Toumani, it's quite crazy.
Maybe it's a stupid question, but is there a way to follow the results of the various drills in real-time? I have to say I'm a bit lost, I've seen results for a few drills posted here but haven't seen Mitchell anywhere. So, either he's just been middle of the pack, or worse, so far (rankings I've seen show the first 10-20 players only), or not every player complete the same drills on the same day and maybe he hasn't taken some of them yet? For the 3 points shooting drill for example I've seen a ranking with just 14 players, which is a weird number. I mean if you deliberately publish the ranking for the top-X players, it's going to be top 5, 10, 15, 20 something like that. Not top-14?
Anyway if you guys could give me some insights on how the draft combine works, that'd be amazing!!
Thanks!

70's Alt Rock -King Crimson-Lark's Tongue In Aspic
80's Alt Rock - Talking Heads-Remain In Light
90's Alt Rock- Nirvana- Never mind
2000's Alt Rock-The Strokes-Is This It
2010's Alt Rock Tame Impala-Lonerism
Alt Country -Wilco-Summerteeth
Alt Hip Hop-MF Doom- Mad villainy
Art Rock-Dark Side Of The Moon-Pink Floyd
Brit Rock- The Clash- London Calling
College Rock-REM-Murmur
Emo Rock-My Chemical Romance-Welcome To The Black Parade
Experimental Rock-Swans-To Be Kind
Goth-The Cure Disintegration
Grunge- Soundgarden-Superunknown
Hardcore Punk- Black Flag- Damaged
Heavy Metal-Black Sabbath-Paranoid
60's Hard Rock-Led Zeppelin I
70's Hard rock-Led Zeppelin-Physical Graffiti
80's Hard Rock- AC/DC-Back In Black
90's Hard Rock-Nirvana-In Utero
2000's Hard Rock-Queens Of The Stone Age-Songs For The Deaf
2010's ˙Hard Rock- Tool-Fear Inoculum
Indie Rock-Joy Division-Unknown Pleasures
Indie Folk-Big Thief-Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
Lo-Fi-Neutral Milk Hotel-In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
New Wave-Elvis Costello-This Year's Model
Progressive Rock- Tool- Lateralus
Punk- Ramones-Rocket To Russia
pop punk-Green Day-Dookie
Post Punk- Wire- Pink Flag
Shoegaze-My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
Blues-Nina Simone-Sings The Blues
Blues Rock-The Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers
Avant Garde- Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band-Trout Mask Replica
Baroque Pop-The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
Symphonic Rock-Moody Blues-Days Of Future Past
Comedy/Novelty album-Adam Sandler-They're All Gonna Laugh At You
Stand Up Comedy-George Carlin-Back In Town
Americana-The Band-The Band
Bakersfield Sound-Buck Owens-Best Of Buck Owens
Bluegrass-Old & In The Way-That High Lonesome Sound
Outlaw Country-Willie Nelson-Redheaded Stranger
Classic Country-Johnny Cash-Live At Folsom Prison
Country Rock- The Flying Burrito Brothers-The Gilded Palace Of Sin
Dance/Club-LCD Soundsystem- This Is Happening
Christmas /Holiday Album-Vince Gauralidi-A Charlie Brown Christmas
EMD/Techno-Burial-Untrue
Ambient-Brian Eno-Music For Airports
Electronic Rock-Radiohead-Kid A
Space Rock- Spiritualized- Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
Synthpop-Depeche Mode-Violator
Synthrock- New Order-Power, Corruption and Lies
Industrial-Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
Krautrock- Can-Tago Mago
Folk-Bob Dylan-The Freewillin' Bob Dylan
Folk Rock-Bob Dylan-Blood On The Tracks
Southern Rock-The Allman Brothers Band-At Fillmore East
80's Hip Hop-The Beastie Boys-Paul's Boutique
90's- Hip Hop Wu-Tang Clan-Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
2000's Hip Hop-Outkast- Stankonia
2010's Hip Hop-Kendrick Lamar-To Pimp A Butterfly
2020's Hip Hop-Run The Jewels-RTJ 4
East Coast Hip Hop- Nas- Illmatic
West Coast Hip Hop-NWA-Straight Outta Compton
Southern Hip Hop-Outkast -Aquemini
Midwest Album-Kanye West-My Dark Twisted Fantasy
Trap-Travis Sott-Rodeo
Instrumental Hip Hop- DJ Shadow- Endtroducing....
Indie Pop-Belle And Sebastian-If You're Feeling Sinister
Noise Rock-Sonic Youth-Daydream Nation
Post-rock- Godspeed! You Black Emperor-Lift Your Skinny Fist Like Antennas To Heaven
Acid Jazz- Medeski ,Martin, and Wood -Shack-Man
Trip Hop -Portishead- Dummy
Gospel -Aretha Franklin-Amazing Grace
Christian- Sufjan Stevens -Illnoise
Jazz-Miles Davis-Kind Of Blue
Avant Garde Jazz-Ornette Coleman-Shape To Jazz To Come
Swing/Bebop-Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers-Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers w/Thelonious Monk
Jazz/Fusion-Miles Davis-In A Silent Way
Jazz Rock-Miles Davis-Bitches Brew
Jazz/Funk-Herbie Hancock-Head Hunters
Jazz/Rap-A tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
Latin- Los Lobos-Kiko
Speed Metal/Thrash- Metallica- Master Of Puppets
Black/Death Metal-Deafheaven-Sunbather
Symphonic Metal-Haken-The Mountain
Glam Rock -T.Rex-Electric Warrior
Hair Metal-Guns N Roses-Appetite For Destruction
New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-Iron Maiden- Number Of The Beast
Sludge-Electric Wizard- Dopethron
Nu Metal-Korn-Korn
New Age-Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra
Pop-Prince-Sign O' The Times
60's Pop- The Beatles-Revolver
70's Pop- Carole King-Tapestry
80's Pop- Peter Gabriel-So
90's Pop-Madonna-Ray Of Light
2000's Pop-Madonna-Confessions On A Dance Floor
2010's pop-Robyn-Body Talk
2020's Pop- Perfume Genius-Set My Heart On Fire
Adult Contemporary- Billy Joel-The Stranger
Europop- ABBA- Arrival
Latin Pop-Ruben Y Seis Del Solar-Buscando America
Dance Pop-Dee-Lite-World Clique
Dream Pop- Mazzy Star-So Tonight I Might See
Power Pop- Weezer-Blue Album
R&B- Marvin Gaye-What's Going On
60's R&B-Aretha Franklin-I Never Loved A Man The Way I Loved You
70's R&B- Stevie Wonder- Songs In The Key Of Life
80's R&B- Janet Jackson- Control
90's R&B Album- Lauryn Hill-The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
2000's R&B- D'Angelo-Voodoo
2010's-R&B-Beyonce-Lemonade
2020's R&B- SZA-SOS
Disco-Donna Summers-Bad Girls
Doo Wop- The Chantels- We Are The Chantels
Funk-Funkadelic-Maggot Brain
Motown- Marvin Gaye-Let's Get It On
Neo-Soul-Erykah Badu-Baduizm
Psychedelic Soul- Curtis Mayfield-Curtis
Soul-Aretha Franklin-Lady Soul
Reggae-Bob Marley- Exodus
Ska-The Specials-The Specials
Swing Revival-Big Bad Voodoo Daddy-Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Rock N Roll-The Rolling Stones-Exile On Main Street
Acid Rock- Jimi Hendrix- Are You Experienced
Arena Rock-Boston-Boston
Cock Rock-Van Halen I
Math Rock-Slint-Spiderland
Stoner Rock-Kyuss-Welcome To Sky Valley
Jam Band- Grateful Dead-American Beauty
SingeSongwriter- Neil Young-Harvest
Surf Rock-The Beach Boys-Shut Down Vol II
Soft Rock/Yacht Rock-Steely Dan-Aja

Well met, friends!

I'm a small fish in a sea of amazing players hoping to find a group of likeminded people to play with! I'm 27F, with about 5 years of TTRPG experience and 10 years roleplay in general. I have reached a point as a player where I don't see TTRPGs as just a casual hobby, but as a special experience that can only be reached though the labour of love, commitment and collective interest of everyone at the table. And I'm hoping for a group that shares in this mindset.

What I can offer:

• Flexibility and commitment: I respect everyone's time and I'm confident that I will not be late to or miss sessions. My availability is mostly in the BST timezone, but I am able and willing to commit to playing late for the right group.
• High dedication and immersion: I am a creative player with a passion for writing. I make in-depth characters with compelling backstories who are well-established in the world they live in. In game, I'm an experienced roleplayer with an immersive and emotionally engaged playstyle, who invests in the DM's world, NPCs and fellow players.
• Proactiveness: I will make a character who has reasons to be involved with the story and world and who never says no to adventure.
• Collaboration: I have a track record of playing support/ supportive characters and I would love a party that is close-knit and can emotionally invest in each other. I am a firm believer in equal sharing of spotlight and I respect/ am supportive when it's someone's turn to take the stage.
• Art: I love TTRPGS and I love drawing pcs/npcs or meaningful/funny scenes from sessions.
• Openness to various systems: I have a preference for fantasy settings and magic to some degree. Depending on the system, I ask for patience from the group while I learn the rules.
• Voice available and video if required. I am willing to learn any (free) VTT.

What I'm looking for:

• Players & DM over 18y/o
• Kindness and Inclusivity: LGBTQ friendly! Racism/ homophobia not tolerated. No antagonism or personal favouritisms by the DM, no outcasting or bullying by the players.
• Active communication: Hoping to play with open and emotionally mature people, who are not afraid to discuss and settle any problems that might occur in and out of game.
• Availability and consistency: A group that looks forward to the game and playing together every week, as opposed to those who only play when they have nothing else better to do. I am hoping for stable schedules, and cancellations rare and notified in advance where possible.
• Group: A smaller number (3-5) of proactive and collaborative people who are comfortable with roleplay and becoming their character. Who are able to immerse themselves in the story and invest in each other.
• A game that is taken seriously: The story itself doesn't have to be serious at all times, but I prefer not to play with joke/meme characters, or those that are only defined by annoying quirks.
• Immersive play: A living, breathing world, and players who can remain in character for the majority of the session.
• Roleplay heavy: A narrative game ran by a DM who encourages player creativity and engagement. A compelling story with intrigue, exploration, interesting foes and meaningful combat, where player agency and choices matter.

At the moment I am not looking for:

• Streamed campaigns/ podcasts, PBP (play by post), West marches, paid games, heavy combat- focused games or magic-less settings
• Groups with 6 or more players
• Well-established groups of long term friends (had to specifically add this due to previous bad experiences)

Thank you for being with me so far! I know I'm asking for a lot, but in return I guarantee you someone who will deeply invest in your world, keep detailed notes, come up with creative solutions, draw cool art, write rhymes and songs, and much more! I will respect your time and hard work, and will try my very best to reward it by being a good player and ensuring that you have as much fun as I am!

If you are a DM who has similar wants and expectations, please send me a message with a little bit about yourself, your campaign /players and availability and we can take it from there!

Join my Fantasy Baseball league on Fantrax https://www.fantrax.com/newui/fantasy/joinLeague.go?leagueId=db85ki6slw5o60tt Draft begins Saturday May 18th 1:00pm

Grave is i think my favorite OSR game. it's a lesser-known hack of Knave 1e designed for dark souls inspired games and i've been running a campaign of it for roughly 2 years now. i praise it here every time i get the opportunity - i've ended up liking it so much, actually, that i really wanted it to be the default system i use for D&D-style fantasy.
this is a bit of an issue as the dark souls elements (souls as both currency & XP, PCs getting multiple deaths, etc) are a pretty specific flavor, so it requires some tweaking. but i want to talk about why i like the system so much before talking about making it work more seamlessly for vanilla fantasy.
good stuff unchanged from Knave: knave 1e is popular enough here that i probably don't need to introduce it, but in case anyone is out of the loop, here you go

• super lightweight, as knave's only 7 pages long
• rather than picking a class, your character is defined entirely by randomly rolled stats & gear. you be a fighter by spending your limited inventory on a big sword & armor and having good strength, you play a wizard by carrying a bunch of spellbooks and having good intelligence. etc etc. very elegant and streamlined
• simple, quick iterations on various old-D&D mechanics, like reaction rolls, morale, monster stats, etc. one-roll side-based initiative. i tend to prefer these over actual D&D/retroclones since they're so clean and easy for new GMs and players to remember

reasons i like Grave specifically:

• PCs have stamina - a resource for spells/combat maneuvers - equal to their empty item slots, adding an axis of customization where a fighter might be more heavily armed & armored for bigger numbers with fewer maneuvers, or play a more nimble swashbuckler for lower numbers with a lot more maneuvers.
• spells are divided into wizardry (INT), theurgy (WIS) and witchcraft (CHA) which adds much more diversity to casters. a wizard and cleric now feel different whereas in knave 1e all spellcasters are largely interchangeable. combined with the stamina mechanic this gives grave vastly more PC diversity than knave while adding very little extra crunch, which i think is super impressive
• grave adds premade packages of starting stats/gear as an alternative to rolling (though you can still roll), essentially adding back character classes. this is really nice, especially when running for new players whose expectations are closer to something like 5e.
• multiple second chances at death per PC (because dark souls) - a little anti-OSR, but i really like it for giving new players a bit of a buffer & time to get invested in their PC. importantly, this only ever goes down as you die, never up, so you have this really nice ticking-clock thing going on as you die more often. it is still way too generous with extra deaths tho, if you run grave i recommend cutting the amount of second chances in half
• whole page of 50 magic items that are all cool and flavorful. the $2 PDF price is probably worth it just for these honestly
• sands off a couple of knave's oddities, like using wisdom for ranged attacks instead of dex. this is an upside or downside depending on preference, but i find it more intuitive to new players

seriously you should play grave. it's so good

my houserules

with 5e being my first ttrpg, that slightly more heroic-fantasy vibe influenced my design here a bit; my goal was to essentially replace 5e with grave as my go-to system for people new to RPGs. you can find the full PDF here!

• diceless skills: i really like skills as a way to customize PCs a little further, but i dislike defaulting to a die roll for task resolution. so instead the game uses a spin on joseph manola's skill system, i.e. if you have the skill on your sheet, you're just considered really good at that thing for the purpose of the GM's rulings. & that's the whole mechanic.
• weapon traits: easy-to-remember, one-sentence traits like crushing weapons being good against armor, rapiers giving you more maneuvers, axes cleaving through enemies, spears having extra reach, etc. weapons deal more damage if they're heavier or don't have traits. the goal is for weapon choice to feel impactful without there being an obvious best one.
• dungeon crawl procedure: this is something knave & grave lack and it's the only thing i feel is really missing from them. i don't really like super-structured dungeon turns with each PC picking exactly 1 action/movement each 10 minutes, so here the referee just marks off 10 minutes behind the screen as appropriate.
• balance adjustments: i love getting to discover characters instead of hand-craft them, so i kept the rolling option on top of grave's classes. but it is reworked so now it gives you the same amount of stats as everyone else, just randomizing where they go instead of how good or bad they are, since i've never liked that power variance. HP is also standardized now.
• ticking-clock deaths: i wanted to keep grave's feeling of gradually getting closer to death the more you fall in combat, even though there's no extra-lives thing built into the lore here. instead you take a mortal wound each time you reach 0HP, and when you hit 3 wounds, you die. they never go away. i like it better than straight death at 0HP because it gives new players a chance to make mistakes without instantly dying, but is still an impactful, permanent consequence.
• other additions: different playable creatures like elves/goblins/etc, a little bestiary, some GM advice, a d50 potion table, proper XP-for-gold rules, free maneuver on to-hit rolls of 20+ (stolen from knave 2e), and a simple character sheet.

i've run this version of grave for kids a few times and it's gone really well. ben milton & jason tocci (knave and grave designers respectively) deserve most of the credit here, since i'm just building on their work and creativity. huge thanks to both of them

MLB DFS Picks Today 5/14/24 Advice for Fanduel and DraftKings Advice can be used for the 16 games today. FantasyTeamAdvisors is very excited to be able to provide you with some MLB content once again. Let’s dig in!
Make sure to also check out all the Vegas Odds for today’s slate. You can also read more DFS advice and lineup picks for sites like FanDuel, DraftKings, and other sports, too. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @advisors_team
DFS Hero Signup and get 15% off your first month- https://www.dfshero.com/?via=ftasports
Today's Video: https://youtu.be/uov15vA4ABs
Today's Article: https://fantasyteamadvisors.com/mlb-dfs-picks-today-5-14-24/
MLB Vegas Odds: https://fantasyteamadvisors.com/mlb-betting-odds/
MLB Batter Splits: https://fantasyteamadvisors.com/mlb-dfs-batter-splits/
DFS Stolen Base Targets: https://fantasyteamadvisors.com/dfs-stolen-base-targets/
Join the discord to grow the community! https://discord.gg/bQrZAnjc
Our discord has daily CORE plays for both FD and DK around an hour or 2 before the slate locks.

Good Morning Patriots
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Free place to chat and a good place to discuss whatever you like with other sub users
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2024 Opponents Set.

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Meet New England’s 2024 Rookie Class.

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New England Patriots News Catchup Links - Gonzalez, Douglas, Wallace, Maye’s footwork, and More!

• Transactions: Patriots sign three of their eight 2024 draft picks and nine rookie free agents.
• Patriots announce Eliot Wolf has been named Executive Vice President of Player Personnel.
• Mike Dussault reports new head coach Jerod Mayo and the Patriots rookies took to the practice fields on Saturday for the media’s first access in 2024.
• Evan Lazar goes inside QB Drake Maye’s day at Saturday’s rookie minicamp.
• Mike Dussault’s Draft Profile: Fourth-round draft pick WR Javon Baker has an intriguing skillset that could be just what the Patriots ordered.
• Alexandra Francisco reports DL Davon Godchaux and his wife, supermodel Chanel Iman, hosted the ChauxDown Foundation’s first annual Mother’s Day Luncheon at Gillette Stadium on Thursday.
• Press Conferences: Jaheim Bell - Marcellas Dial - Ja’Lynn Polk - Caedan Wallace - Drake Maye - Jerod Mayo.
• Transcript: Jerod Mayo.
• Photos: Patriots Rookie Minicamp - Day 1 & 2 and Day 3.
• Mike Reiss shares some quick-hit weekend thoughts: QB Joe Milton III had ‘too much talent’ to pass up; Possible joint training camp practice with Eagles; Wallace-Robinson duo; Reaction to 18-game season; More!
• Ben Volin’s Sunday Football Notes: Beyond Drake Maye, what should we make of the Patriots’ first draft post-Bill Belichick?
• Steve Balestrieri’s Sunday Patriots News: Rookie mini-camp, Eliot Wolf IS the GM; Ernie Adams; More.
• Andy Hart’s Sunday 7: Jerod Mayo and Drake Maye go camping.
• Doug Kyed’s Rookie Minicamp Notes: Observations from Drake Maye, draft class. Top takeaway: Quarterback play will look different for the Patriots this season.
• Taylor Kyles shares his observations from rookie minicamp: Rookie weapons stand out.
• Tom E. Curran’s Rookie minicamp observations: Drake Maye as advertised, a work in progress with all the physical tools to, someday, maybe, approach his much-discussed ceiling; Joe Milton has a cannon of an arm; More.
• Chris Mason gives us 7 takeaways from Patriots rookie minicamp. 1. Both QBs have big arms.
• Alex Barth’s Rookie minicamp notebook: First look at the Class of 2024.
• Mike D’Abate’s Patriots Rookie Minicamp notes: Jerod Mayo reveals ‘a-ha’ moment; More.
• Sophie Weller posts her photos from rookie minicamp at Gillette Stadium.
• Zack Cox tells us how Drake Maye was taking charge at Patriots rookie minicamp.
• Mike D’Abate points out that based on their usage during rookie minicamp, rookie offensive linemen Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson may each be facing a possible positional switch.
• Christopher Price hears from rookie offensive linemen Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson, who say they have been ‘inseparable since we got out here’ at minicamp.
• Doug Kyed spotlights how the rookie receivers and offensive linemen are forging early connections at minicamp.
• Alex Barth posts the Patriots rookie jersey numbers for 2024.