Monday, August 17, 2020

GURPS DF Session 138, Felltower 106 - Icy Gate II - Escape from Icy Gate

This is a continuation of the delve started in Session 137.

Date: August 16th, 2020
Game Date: August 4th, and then 17th, 18th.

Weather: Hot, sunny.

Characters:

Aldwyn Hale, human knight (303 points)
     Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice wizard (150 points)
"Mild Bruce" McTavish, Jr., human barbarian (306 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (317 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (461 points)
Gerald Tarrant, human necromancer (374 points)
     3 Skeletons (~35 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (306 points)
Sir Bunny Wigglesworth, human holy warrior (259 points)

The group was standing on an icy, windy mountain-top ridge facing a cave their Navigator said contained a gate to Felltower. They headed in, led by Galen. Their idea was to get inside the cave mouth, out of the wind, to change up their cold-resisting spells. That would tough, as the cave was long but not wide (only 3 yards wide and high) and they take up a lot of space (11 hexes of people.) They moved in and Galen moved ahead.

Galen saw more marks on the slick ice of the movement of something big.

They moved into a cave system and found a raised section of ice to the east, another tunnel out to the northwest. Galen scouted to the northwest as they heard a scraping and sliding noise. He saw a large cave and the sound got much louder! As they started to react, a gigantic ice-crusted "worm" slide down the ice from a nearby cave at high speed. They formed up and Galen dodged back behind the shield-carrying fighters, luckily keeping his footing on the ice. The others just chose Wait or AOD (Dodge.) The worm breathed out a huge cone of frost and ice chunks, hitting the front ranked fighters (the others, including Wyatt, were out of sight around a corner.) No one was more than mildly hurt, though, as it rolled very poor damage (ranging from 6-10 on 3d-1) and the PCs were both bundled up in arctic gear and armor. They tried to advance on it, but Aldwyn and Crogar slipped. Sir Bunny stood in place and waited. Galen shot it a couple-three times and chipped off ice on all three shots.

The PCs attempted to close with it, but it stayed back. It tried to bite and sting Crogar a couple times, but he was able to block and parry those, and climbed up to his feet. Aldwyn got up, too. Galen kept shooting, aiming for inside its mouth as it bit (I allowed this as Chinks in Armor, -8). In the back, Varmus created a Fireball and eventually tossed it at the ground to melt the ice, and did, then stood in the water and cast Resist Fire on himself. Gerry put Great Haste on himself, and on Galen. Wyatt crushed a few spellstones, including Walk on Air, and ran up.

The wyrm kept biting at the PCs, including Bruce, who ran up with a Move and Attack. He managed to Dodge with two 8s, despite the ice, lack of Retreat, etc. It never managed to do any damage except some to Crogar's shield. Bruce and Crogar hit it a couple of times and did some damage, but Galen just kept putting six arrows into its mouth per second. It died in only 2-3 seconds of this. It was badly wounded, and then Galen hit it for 16, 15, 7, 8, 16, and 14 impaling, all in one second. That more than finished it.

With the ice wyrm dead, they checked around to ensure it was alone. It seemed to be. They got to work carving it up for parts based on Galen's Survival (Arctic). He got to work on the teeth, and Ulf was to attempt Surgery with a -5 for lacking any proper tools. It was IQ-based, so Gerry offered up a Wisdom potion that he'd reconstituted from dust and wasn't really sure of. Ulf took it. He rolled a 4, and was able to extract the cold-producing organs from inside the wyrm. He used a scroll of Suspend Animation to keep it fresh and put it in two sacks to carry it. Galen was able to extra the teeth - 1d of them. He rolled a 1. He used Luck, and got another 1, and a 2. Oh well.

They took their loot and explored the tunnels. It got colder and colder as they went in. Down one path they eventually found a deeply freezing room with the gate. Down another, they found a room with icy walls studded with big chunks of blue crystal that looked like some kind of quartz. Mage Sight didn't show them to be magical. Galen recently learned Prospecting so he used some improvised tools (a mallet, a mace, and iron spikes) to chip out ten of them, weighing ~50 lbs in total. The rest broke into useless splinters. They spread them out among the warrior types and headed to, and through, the gate. The crystal room and the gate room were a stunning -135 F, and despite their gear and Warmth spells some of them began to lose FP at an increasing clip. On the far side of the gate the temperature was a sweltering 0 degrees F (-18 C), so they started pulling off their gear.

They forced the door out, and then moved out. The portcullises were still up, the coals still burning, so they headed through, leaving their torch between the portcullises for next time. Gerry lent 6 FP to Ulf so he could cancel 6 Warmth spells early. Then Ulf used Sanctuary and they went inside. They rested for 1 hour 40 minutes, and then exited and headed out, FP recovered. Aldwyn opened the two handprint doors, and they made their way to the GFS and up, encountering nothing along the way - and no one succumbing to the stale air (Gerry used Luck.)

Once they reached the top, carefully checking for traps as they went, they headed toward the orcs. They found a solid block of stone where they expected some rubble they could clear with a pickaxe and shovels. They made their way to another area, and found they same. Since they were near a bricked-up room where their map showed secret doors, they bashed down the brick wall and headed in.

They used See Secrets and checked the wall, but found no secret doors. They realized their map was just wrong, having tried in an earlier delve to find the secret doors from the other side.

They headed back to the stairs and up, intending to come to the orc hole from behind.

On the way, on level 1 they stopped in the pool room after Ulf semi-sold the idea to enthusiastic delvers who hadn't been there.

The door was locked but yielded to Gerry's Lockmaster spell.

They went in, and explored the 13 pools. All held something, even one they expected to be empty. They put Resist Poison on Aldwyn, who drank from one and had his wounds healed. Two others unknown to them turned out to be water, one bitter and one stale, and the last acid, which did 6 corrosion damage to Aldwyn's mouth and tongue. He wasn't too mangled, and Ulf was able to hear him. He noted the acid was powerful but it didn't affect his helmet. They decided it could be alkahest, and Gerry concurred it could be that or something like it.

Eventually they started to drink from the purple pool "of dreams." They each prayed or stated what they wished to dream of, then drank. Ulf did so and fell asleep. Wyatt drank, too, and fell asleep. After waiting three hours, Ulf woke up. He'd dreamed of shattered the chains on two giant doors, and finding a huge room carpeted with coins many layers thick - copper, silver, and gold. The he woke.

Aldwyn drank, too, and also fell asleep. Wyatt woke up, and related his dream of a circular room deep in Felltower with a plain fountain in it. He touched it, and gained great power - more strength, agility, health, and speed. Much of it, he knew, was temporary, but a percentage of it was permanent. He also knew not to touch the fountain again or he'd lost his gain. Then he woke. Crogar tried to drink, but didn't fall asleep - Gerry, the same (his Improved Magic Resistance "aided" him here.) Varmus drank, too. He was still sleeping when the PCs realized a) they'd been in the room for ~9 hours, and b) the lightstones seemed just a little dimmer, and the shadows around a little thicker. Around now Alwdywn woke up. He dreamed of free-climbing a tall pillar that he couldn't see to the bottom but heard splashing when pieces of stone fell. When he reached the top, he found a little alcove in the pillar with a chest in it. Inside the chest were coins, jewelry, and gems.

So they left - using Lockmaster on the door to leave. Mild Bruce carried sleeping Varmus.

After that, they headed to the altar so Ulf could run in and use Dismissive Wave. It failed. He was injured. He was healed and they moved on.

Next, they made it to the stairs down to the second level, and found they door they'd destroyed. Beyond it was solid stone.

They went back up. They tried to use the "bugbear tunnels" to leave, but found the corridor down that way had partly collapsed.

Next, they headed into the are where delvers - including Galen - fought some wights may years ago. It was closed off roughly with stone and mortar, again. So they woke up Varmus with Awaken, cutting off his dream. He said he dreamed of them opening a door, and something killed them off violently and quickly . . . and they woke him before he could identify the door clearly! They kept asking if doors "looked familiar" but he couldn't remember a single salient detail from his dream thanks to his early wakeup.

They bashed the wall down quickly.

They found nothing except some empty rooms and bits of bone and shattered coffins. They did find the door at the far end of the corridor was intact, and locked. It had a small waist-height viewing slit plugged with wood. They used a knife to push that in, but it hung in place. So they opened the door. Beyond it was a large room - 80 x 100 - that had been used as a living area. Whatever used it was long gone.

They found evidence of a target practice area, a fire/cooking area, a pen for 3-5 dogs, and an emergency toilet corner. The viewslit plug was on leather straps so it could be moved and used, and then dropped to cover the slit easily. They also found the hinges were new, and oiled - but probably not used in a long time. Finally, they found 411 hash marks on the wall ending with a check mark. Probably 10-12 people - likely surface-dwellers based on the smell and habits - stayed there for a long, long time.

Ulf put See Secrets on Galen. With it, he spotted a concealed trapdoor in the floor. It was easily pried open, but it was sealed with Shape Stone. They decided this must be connected to the gnome.

After all of that, they headed back to the surface, which wasn't very far from where they were.


Notes:

- a couple of guys have hobnailed boots, which negate bad footing. This includes ice.

- I think falling should be nastier than it is, now in our games. You should risk dropping weapons (or just drop them, like with Knockdown), for one. I think I'm supposed to require a DX roll per hex of movement, too, not just one roll. You really shouldn't run 4 yards on ice just because you have Move 8 and roll DX just as often as taking a Step. I need to re-read those rules again. I thought I remembered them, but maybe not.

- I let my players roll the two d6 rolls needed for their dreams. I'm pretty sure they wrote down the numbers, so they can compare in-game results to the dreams to the rolls. Amusing, because I often re-number and re-arrange my tables. They write down the numbers they roll for rumors, too, and track that. I don't leave rumors in a particularly slot, either. I move them around as formatting and convenience suits. I use dummy rolls, too - rolls that don't do anything. And sometimes I call for rolls that aren't immediately relevant, too - roll now, used later for results. Rolling is fun. I like people to have the deciding roll, but not to use the numbers to try to triangulate their results in some way. The numbers don't have any in-game existence, so they can change.

- Roll20's rolling frustrates me. It's very slow, and also I roll, on average, below average. We also get a lot of incidences of repeated rolls - two 8s, two 9s, three 11s, etc. It's possibly just statistical clumping but it's also possible it's just a junky roller. It's certainly slow enough to be very annoying.

- Best line of the way wasn't one particular line, just the whining about how the orcs kept blocking stuff off and someone else (Mild Bruce? Aldwyn) pointing out that maybe they don't want to have every member of their tribe killed just to have an easy way to explore deeper in Felltower.

- the Wandering Monster rolls were kind today. I do need to modify my approach a little, though - more on what I do now, and what I'm going to do, in another post. Not to make them more frequent, exactly, but to make consequences of time and exploration happen more often.

- that said, you spend too long in some places in Felltower - or maybe just in Felltower - and stuff can happen. Not just a quickie monster to kill, either.

- the group lost two weeks in the gate travel. One player figured that meant the time spent past the gate didn't matter. It did, but they also spent roughly 23 hours before and after in Felltower. So they ended up coming home on Tuesday morning.

- they took home 37,500 worth of loot plus two very fine knives, which I ruled cost $40 each for getting wrapped and hilted and such since no one wanted to risk Aldwyn's low skill (11.) 40% of that is 15,000. Yes, Wealth would be useful. Still the hangup is someone saving the points up, and then that character possibly wanting an uneven cut of loot to reflect their extra value. Had someone had Comfortable it would have netted another 7500 right there. Not small change.

- Full XP for loot for this delve, plus a point for exploration. MVP for both sessions was Ulf, although Galen voted for himself and I think had a real claim. He mostly killed the wyrm all by himself and his skills and senses were critical this session. But so was Ulf's 4 and his spells.

(More notes here.)

24 comments:

  1. So much improvised tool use. They should consider hiring a porter and loading them up with tool kits

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    1. Very good point. Ulf is definitely purchasing surgical tools ASAP. Although they weigh 15 lb., it's a non-issue when venturing around in the lands beyond the Icy Gate, where he's at medium encumbrance anyway and 15 lb. won't make a difference. When exploring in Felltower, he'll probably just get the monstrous "Mild" Bruce (20 ST, 32 hp, 7'6", 300+ lb. barbarian) to carry it around for him. Or Gerry's skeletons, who already carry a pickaxe, shovel, etc.

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    2. "We don't need hirelings, we have have front-line fighters and Gerry's skeletons to load up with stuff." It's amusing how much you guys depend on 2-3 ST 11 skeletons to carry loot, gear, fallen companions, etc., and how much you'll load onto people who jump into harm's way. I really do need a random equipment damage table for when the front-line fighters get hit with area-effect damage while carrying everyone's crap.

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    3. "I really do need a random equipment damage table for when the front-line fighters get hit with area-effect damage while carrying everyone's crap."

      Holy smokes! I've been thinking this myself. Something like "On a 1 in 6, a hit to the torso also hits a container the PC is carrying (Backpack, pouch, bandolier, delver's webbing, etc) and does full damage to the container and it's contents." I'm just not sure 1-in-6 is the right odds... and what sort of behavior constantly destroying PC's gear will enforce.

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    4. Something like that for narrow-area attacks probably makes sense. For large-area attacks, everything should have a high likelihood of being hit.

      I think it will cause more people to stick things inside their armor. I also think it potentially will cause more people to combat-load and put their gear on hirelings. I further think it will cause people to ask me about fireproof, shockproof, acidproof, high-DR containers . . . and then claim them as DR even as the contents are fine.

      Really, though, it's just a lack of verisimilitude for me. I don't like the mental image of a guy wearing plate armor, full-visor face gear, claiming DR 10+ vs. large area injury, but he can also draw potions from his potion belt and spellstones from his delver's webbing instantly with Fast-Draw or in 1 second, all the while his gear being immune to damage. Equally, I'd like a rule that explains why carrying six-eight grenades on your chest isn't always safe in a sci-fi game, either, so I don't want something purely DF-centric.

      I know the counter argument is video games yadda yadda yadda but even Diablo had equipment damage. It was a real (and serious) problem.

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    5. "I think it will cause more people to stick things inside their armor. I also think it potentially will cause more people to combat-load and put their gear on hirelings."

      That is acceptable behavior.

      "I further think it will cause people to ask me about fireproof, shockproof, acidproof, high-DR containers . . . and then claim them as DR even as the contents are fine."

      I'm only down with "claim them as DR" if the container takes the hit. But then if the container's DR is overcome, the contents are as well...

      "Really, though, it's just a lack of verisimilitude for me."

      Agreed. I know I've done it in the past, usually as a "Hey, this hit is from behind, I'll let you take as a hit on your pack, but then the pack //and contents// will take the brunt of the damage..." type thing. I've also seen it as a "I only missed my Dodge by 1, can my pack have taken the hit?", and I've straight up seen it as a Serendipity use.

      But yeah, having been in fights, oftimes your attendant gear (clothes, pager on your belt, etc) get roughed up.

      "Equally, I'd like a rule that explains why carrying six-eight grenades on your chest isn't always safe in a sci-fi game, either, so I don't want something purely DF-centric."

      Well... depending on the type of grenade... but yeah.

      "I know the counter argument is video games yadda yadda yadda but even Diablo had equipment damage. It was a real (and serious) problem."

      Item damage in Diablo was limited to armor and weapons. Your pack, potion belt, potions, etc couldn't be damaged. But I agree in essence, DF isn't Gauntlet.

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    6. I never find even that ST 20 stretches very far encumbrance wise, though I guess for Shirtless Savage no armor guys it might

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    7. I can attest that Shirtless Savage does indeed stretch the Encumbrance out... my Ogress Barbarian/Wrestler (Shirtless Savage) has 140 pounds of gear and is at No Encumbrance. Not 'having' to wear armor is big Encumbrance relief (though there are 21 Character Points in this build dedicated to "not having to wear armor" so it wasn't exactly 'cheap' and it's definitely not 'heavily armored' - Tough Skin is not the best armor, no matter how much you have).

      She does pull the wagon (I've decided it's //her// wagon) which is further laded with gear, so she is getting off pretty light. She could carry everything on the wagon, but that would definitely put her up to Heavy Encumbrance - 30 gallons of water, two chests, all the rope, everyone else's "non-essential" gear.

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    8. It's true - with Shirtless Savage, you can have reasonably good DR for 0 encumbrance. Yes, yes, you can stack up a lot higher DR with great armor - but that takes a lot of money, and a lot of weight, especially for a SM+1 barbarian. Our Shirtless Savages - which I think every barbarian has been - all seem content with DR 7 and encumbrance at None. They have a very good Dodge, a lot of spare carrying capacity, and a lot of Move.

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    9. My Ogress Barbarian/Wrestler is SM+2 (I was allowed to get away with it!) so armor is right out. As a Shirtless Savage in order to have 'tough enough' armor for her to get a "positive effect" (ie, not reducing her DR*) it has to be so expensive it's unattainable. She's saving for an Ironskin Amulet†, she's 16% of the way there...

      * Yeah, stopping '"touch attacks" from the handful of things that do those would be a bene, but not a big enough bene.

      † Which will cost only slightly more than SM+2 Brigandine, so it actually increases her DR without adding weight and blocks some of those pesky "ignores non-magic DR" attacks! And protects her eyes from Scouts and Squishybucklers. Triple plus good!

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    10. Re: Shirtless Savage. Yes, this is great for any sized barbarian, but especially large barbarians. Mild Bruce is SM+1 with Shirtless Savage 5 and Tough Skin 2. He's at ST 20, so he can carry a lot. He'll probably be looking at, among other things, if he continues to survive, upping ST (and HP to 40 as soon as he can), Lifting ST, and Wrestling skill.

      Re: Ironskin Amulets. Those are amazing.

      Re: Damage to Containers, etc. Yes, we should make sure this happens. We have some people who carry Alchemist's Fire. Canonically, this is risky to carry. Exploits, p. 68, indicates that 1 point of Burning Damage will set off Alchemist's Fire or Matches if in hand, 3 if tucked into a belt or pack. Crystal Vials (paut, healing potions) have DR 1, not sure how many HP (3, maybe 6 as per Exploits p. 102?). We probably should figure out how to deal with those in potion belts, delver's webbing, etc. If they are inside armor, it takes longer to get--at least one second or more even with a fast draw, presumably. Outside armor--there must be some chance of that getting hit on a torso shot. Backpacks on back shots are *probably* not going to get hit if someone is trying to hurt a person (they'll stab around, presumably), but for large area attacks, they should take damage. Maybe there's a chance on a torso shot also to hit a backpack. In the end, I think that it would be really helpful for the verisimilitude and enjoyment factor if we had a relatively easy to remember rule for determine whether or not that stuff gets hit. I think the potion belt is less likely, since that's decidedly at belt height. Ulf wears Delver's webbing--there's probably a decent chance one of those pouches gets hit on a torso shot.

      Of course, this all goes to a follow-up post which is going to require players to remember that when they get hit. But I think if we clarify a few of these rules at the beginning of the next session, that should help.

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    11. It would have to be significantly longer than 1 second from inside of armor, unless your "armor" is basically web gear. Any kind of rigid armor - like plate or stiff leather - means you have to take it off or take a lot of time to get something from underneath it. I'm always amused by guys with plate armor and a mail coif under a greathelm miming "pulling out their necklace to show the guy." That's a chore and a half if you've covered it with armor to protect it - and you.

      I think a random "something you carry gets hit" approach might work, followed by a large-area injury ruling. I'll give it some thought.

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    12. In addition to the armor covering the item in Peter's example the miming players need to remember they probably also have gauntlets that are bulky and limit fine manipulation. And once they manage to pull the item out from behind the armor it is probably going to stay out until they remove their armor given that it is a lot harder to push something back into a tight space than to pull it out (especially given the gauntlet problem already mentioned).

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    13. Yeah, I agree. One second is far too short. I assume all of this stuff is worn over the armor.

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    14. I tend to be really generous about hand dexterity while wearing gauntlets in combat (and less so out of combat), but it's true.

      Training grappling with people who've never grappled with gloves before is a lot of fun. Put wraps and gloves on, even open-palm individually half-fingered 4 oz training gloves, and suddenly they find they can't slip hands out so well. Or grab as well. Or get their hands in for some choke, arm lock, or leg lock. And that's with open palms, open fingers, minimal padding . . .

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  2. IIRC Aldwyn dreamed of free-climbing a tall pillar that he couldn't see to the bottom but heard splashing when pieces of stone fell. When he reached the top, he found a little alcove in the pillar with a chest in it. Inside the chest were coins, jewelry, and gems.

    I also think Aldwyn's exact line was "I think, if I was the orcs, even though I want to find the tomb of my king, it might be better to not have my entire clan slaughtered by 10 guys who like to find money in Felltower." in response to Ulf's complaining.

    All in all fun delve.
    Wealth (Comfortable) might be on Aldwyn's list of advantages to buy (as if he needs more than 20 advantages).

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    1. Yes, I forgot to put Aldwyn's dream in. I'll edit your description into the post.

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    2. I think one of Ulf's quirks now needs to be, "Complains about things that nobody should complain about." In addition to "bossy," "somewhat cowardly," "has irrational(?) confidence in Galen," etc. Given all the incredible things Galen does, it's not all that irrational, though.

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  3. I can't speak to the speed of it but the dice roller is definitely random.

    https://roll20.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037256594-Quantum-Roll

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    1. Yeah, so I hear. But tell that to Tim Shorts, who rolled more 1s than all of the rest of us combined every session.

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    2. The online roller we use in gwythaint's games is also supposedly "quantum random"... but yet I've done an analysis of my rolls (I tracked 10000+ rolls) and I roll a solid 11.85. However what that doesn't show is that in those thousands of rolls never once did I roll a 3 or 18, and my rolls outside of the narrow 9-12 pocket were far, far, below the bell curve. My 'bell curve' looks an awful lot like a 'bell tower', which has influenced how I make characters for that game. I aim at skills of "14 minimum" and never bother with crit fishing, it's not going to happen. And I don't even worry about damage rolls, they'll be solidly average too (I roll a solid 3.8ish on a d6, which is good when you want damage, less good when you want that "1 on a d6", but nicely 'even' for "even or odds" rolls).

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    3. We see unexplainable things on Roll20. With 6 of us on, somehow one player can roll all night and never get above a 6 on d20. We have a lot more 20s and 1s online than in person. And one night there was definitely something wrong as every time one player did his attack macro (which rolls to hit and various damage options in parallel) it had exactly the same numbers. Something like six different combinations of dice get rolled in that macro and all six totals were always the same as the last attack. He quit and restarted and it got resolved. We also often see if two rolls are clicked rapidly in succession they frequently have the same results. So on a good night, low server loading, fair time between rolls, Roll20 gives a proper distribution of randomness, but most nights are not good nights?

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    4. It's much harder to test for than bum dice. I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling this way.

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