(Part 2) Best puzzles & games books according to redditors

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We found 5,215 Reddit comments discussing the best puzzles & games books. We ranked the 1,627 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Subcategories:

Board games books
Chess books
Card games books
Bridge books
Crosswords puzzles books
Gambling books
Blackjack books
Brain teaser books
Magic tricks books
Puzzles books
Quiz books
Video games handbooks
Travel games books
Trivia books
Video & computer games books
Word games books
Word search games books
Math games books
Fantasy sports books
Sudoku books
Minecraft guides

Top Reddit comments about Puzzles & Games:

u/Biged123z · 67 pointsr/Habs

For those stuck behind the paywall, here are a few key sections

​

>There is a theory, most notably explored in the book “The Numbers Game” by Chris Anderson and David Sally, that some sports are strong-link games and others are weak-link games. The point of the book, and a subsequent podcast on the subject by Malcolm Gladwell, was to demonstrate how soccer is a weak-link game in that a team would be better served making sure its worst players are better than the other team’s worst players in order to win more games. Basketball is on the opposite end of that spectrum, quite clearly a strong-link game in which the team that has the best player on the court is most likely to win that game.
>
>Where hockey sits on that spectrum is not quite clear. Arguments have been made it is clearly a strong-link game, but it’s not quite as obvious as it is in the cases of soccer and basketball. But on that weak-link/strong-link spectrum, the Canadiens are undoubtedly closer to the weak link end of it and the Maple Leafs are at the strong link end of it. It is not possible to see it any other way.
>
>They are a study in contrasts. Contrasts that are born out of necessity. Contrasts that manifested themselves Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.
>
>The question of strong-link versus weak-link sports was posed to Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on Saturday morning. He coaches the three highest-paid players in the NHL this season; Tavares, Marner and Matthews, Babcock’s three shooters in the shootout, will make $47.8 million among them this season. All the Canadiens forwards combined will make $35 million.



>Having a team’s best player in goal is a debatable strategy, but it is one the Canadiens have embraced and it is their reality, debatable or not.
>
>When the Maple Leafs wind up with breakaways from Marner and Tavares in overtime and Price turns them aside, when Tavares makes an incredible move with five seconds left in overtime and Price gets across to stop it, when Price stops Matthews, Marner and Tavares in the shootout, the Canadiens’ strong link essentially wins it for them.
>
>But what gave Price that opportunity to shine is the Canadiens’ weak-link offence, the one that allows them to roll four lines and stay fresh and forecheck and force mistakes. They find themselves in a division with three of the strongest-link teams in the NHL in the Maple Leafs, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins. For the Canadiens to survive, they will need to make the argument hockey is a weak-link game.
>
>For one night at least, they made that argument quite convincingly.

u/OneFishTwoFish · 47 pointsr/AskReddit

Here's some things I enjoyed when I was a kid, and that are even more fun sharing with my son. Some of them may have to wait until he's a little older.


Sounds like you're already on the way to giving him the best thing that he could ask for -- an older brother who treats him like an individual and spends time with him.


Keep in mind that kids don't have the same sense of time as adults and they don't focus on the same types of goals. Try not to have too set a timetable for these things -- if he wants to spend all afternoon exploring the stream he found 15 minutes from the parking lot, let him. You'll still have had a great afternoon with him, even if you didn't get to take him on the two mile hike to the scenic view you'd planned.

  • Hiking and exploring in the woods, especially if there's a stream or pond involved.
  • Go fishing. Don't be surprised if he ignores the poles after a short time to try to catch frogs and minnows.
  • Take a canoe trip, even if it's just a couple hours.
  • Go to a big amusement park and go on rides with him. Go back to the same one each summer. He'll remember when he was too young to be allowed to ride on ABC, or the first time he rode on XYZ. Lots of little milestones and memories. Goals and incentives too -- eat your vegetables and meat so you'll grow enough to ride on the new roller coaster next summer. If rides that spin make you nauseous (they will someday), Dramamine helps. Take one tablet the night before, and another a couple hours before your first ride. Old diver's trick.
  • Visit a good sized cave
  • Make and launch model rockets
  • Visit the local science museum or children's museum
  • Take him to the library a couple times a month. My folks let me read anything I could check out, which made me feel grown up and independent
  • Ride bikes
  • Put some of your favorite books on his shelf for him to find and read when he's the right age
  • Get him some books like The Dangerous Book for Boys. Flip through them together and find fun things to learn or do.
u/rob7030 · 47 pointsr/Pathfinder_RPG

Well if she's pregnant, she really shouldn't be adventuring anymore, because there's a whole load of stuff that can go catastrophically wrong that has a huge chance of killing the game's mood. No one wants to deal with "The boss just disemboweled her? But she was PREGNANT!"

That said, if you really do want to keep going with this, there is an entire CHAPTER of pregnancy rules in [The Book of Erotic Fantasy] (http://www.amazon.com/Book-Erotic-Fantasy-Gwendolyn-Kestrel/dp/097420451X) (from 3rd edition, but it works with PF.) I highly recommend you read it if you're going to bring sex into your game, as it has a lot of advice on how to deal with it in a mature way that's right for your group. Sure, sex is fun, but it also makes things complicated, and it's always good to take precautions so you don't fuck up your group.

u/Stembolt_Sealer · 39 pointsr/videos

What? That isn't what happened at all. Shit, now I have to rewatch the video to show why you are wrong. God damn it. Will edit soon.

Edit below:

First hand he says, "I chose to call because I had some aggressive players here and I just wanna be sure there aren't any big cards here."

First off, that is anathema to poker theory. Calling is always the weakest move and he's making a joke by explaining the hand backwards. Inside joke for people who know poker theory. You flush out big cards (especially on a 378 flop) by betting into the pot not by calling. Calling doesn't push anything out. Two spades on the board and calling player has 2nd highest flush draw with QK. One of the worst positions to be in, he loses the hand on the river versus a Jack of spades which is a double slap in the face because its the only card that improves both of their hands. Adds insult to injury.

Second hand "JJ in small blind, this is a great spot to get them." He's not wrong there, but he only calls which pulls the big blind into the hand (he mis-speaks and says, "Oh the small blind called", he meant to say big blind). Flop comes 433 with a potential flush draw but this is a good flop otherwise for JJ with three players in the pot. BB goes all-in in a confusing turn of events as there is no pre-flop hand that he should've called the original raise with. BB hole cards 38 giving him a set of 3's with the flop. Basically big blind was playing stupidly in order to draw someone in (or was just an idiot playing poorly). In either case it fucks the Jacks.

Third hand JJ late position with aggressive players behind you, the player calls and another players (presumably conservative) goes all-in in what the player assumed to be heads up which throws a wrench in his plan. Player calls because he has jacks and gets fucked by the aces. Aggressive player from original explanation folds and isn't even in the final hand.

Fourth hand "Pocket Jacks here, middle position, cash table, low stakes" JJ versus overcard (an overcard is a single card on the table higher than the cards in your hand which may potentially be paired with another player's hole card), this is already looking bad for the player. "That means you bet!" He's right, if you want to detect an overcard you have to bet into it, either they will bluff the card and you'll win, or they have it and you minimize your losses by betting into it and folding. Player bets 50% pot which is an acceptable bet. Note he's playing against the biggest stack at the table, who is likely more willing to call bets which are <1/10 his stack. Second overcard comes out, same as before except now twice as bad because there are two. Big stack bets 1/3 pot, player re-raises 1/4 pot (a pointless raise that anyone would call, bad play), then he gets pushed all-in which he should've expected because he played meekly.

Fifth hand Tournament play, not a cash game. Dealer shoves and Jacks called heads up, perfect scenario and if this happened a million times you'd do the same thing every time. Dealer shows A3, an awful hand. Statistics are strongly in favor of JJ. Post flop only 5 cards out of 45 can save him, then 5/44 on the river. JJ looks in the clear but dealer gets an Ace, two pair wins. Nothing was done wrong on the part of JJ here.

Sixth hand Tournament play. JJ in BB against short stack who is probably on tilt. JJ v JA, JJ has the advantage but not by much. Flops turns a straight draw, only 7 cards in the deck out of 44 can save his opponent. He hits one of those 7.

Seventh hand Cash game. JJ on BB, two overcards on the flop (which sucks, potential fold here). His opponent bets in a way that doesn't maximize on his hand which makes him appear weak. Jacks lose to a hand that was played poorly, but a loss is a loss.

Eighth hand Tournament play. JJ in position again. JJ raises 3x BB, gets raised all-in. Pretty self explanatory. QQ > JJ.

Ninth hand Tournament play. Jacks looking double solid with the straight draw, but there is an overcard on the board. JJ notes that his opponent is aggressive which calls for a change in style of play, you have to confront aggressive players to get them to back down and/or defeat them off the table. Pushes the "idiot" player in, cards turn and idiot has 36 chasing the flush (a very stupid thing to do) hits the flush on the turn and hits his stupid hand. Hands like these are why poker is profitable, the opposing player did a dumb thing and chased a stupid hand that is only profitable approximately 40% of the time, 60% of the time the Jacks would have won so our player did the right thing. Still lost, this is the 40%.

Tenth hand Cash game. Confronts a loose player with JJ in order to get a payout. Aggressive player responds conservatively and disappoints the player.

TLDR: He make a combination of jokes giving bad advice, but generally doing the right thing and shows that no matter how well you play Jacks they will fuck you in the ass.

To reply to /u/Balthanos

>He kept losing because he was not paying attention to his opponent. He was betting when another player went "all in" which usually infers they have something.

When another player goes all-in, there are only two replies.

  1. Fold and concede the hand.

  2. Call and confront the hand.

    You can't reply with a "bet" when an opponent goes all-in so I'm not even sure what you are saying. If you are saying he was betting before the all-in and the mistake was to call, well that's plainly just not true in most of these scenarios, and if you are saying that he should not have bet before the all-in occurred then I want to know where you keep your crystal ball because I could use it for my poker games.

    I WROTE THIS REALLY FAST SO I APOLOGIZE FOR MY GRAMMAR

    Daniel Negreanu on Jacks.

    Poker theory on Jacks (and more).

    ___

    If you've made it to the end of this post, chances are you may be interested in poker. I will recommend some resources for you to further your knowledge and perhaps get some new players into the game.

    Phil Gordon's Little Green Book is an amazing resource for the beginner and the advanced poker player who has perhaps forgotten some of the basics. Its a nice pocket reference book and a quick read, I have no doubt that it will improve your game.

    Harrington on Hold-em this is a TOURNAMENT based book. So if your friends have a game they play on a weekly basis which is a CASH game this book is NOT APPLICABLE. Just be aware that the style of play across Poker is NOT universal. You will play differently in tournaments and cash games and players tend to gravitate toward one or the other. Note on the author, he is an extremely conservative player thus the book is written from that perspective. He does however do an excellent job of analyzing other players and explaining their motivations, using real hands he has been in over the years in real tournaments.

    The Theory of Poker another good book for you if you've never read anything about poker.

    You might be thinking to yourself, I'm awful with math! I could never understand poker! The statistics, the combinations, the confusion! Well you'd be wrong. The math of poker is not difficult and by the time you've played a few games you've already memorized a bunch of it. Situations repeat often enough that you'll learn to spot them early on and learn to predict the likely outcomes.
u/Matt2142 · 30 pointsr/soccer

Inverting the Pyramid - Jonathan Wilson
A pioneering book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe.

Teambuilding: the road to success - Rinus Michels
The late Rinus Michels, FIFA's Coach of the Century, offers his unique insight into the process of "teambuilding".

The Coaching Philosophies of Louis Van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches - Henny Kormelink and Tjeu Seeverens
Louis van Gaal, Frans Hoek, Co Adriaanse and fitness coach Bobby Haarms discuss their training methods and philosophies in this book full of creative ideas for soccer coaches at any level.

Dutch Soccer Secrets - Peter Hyballa & Hans-Dieter te Poel
This book is a first attempt to present expert knowledge of internationally proven useful and effective Dutch soccer coaching in theory and practice, based on qualitative data collection.

Attacking Soccer: a tactical analysis - Massimo Lucchesi
This book examines match strategies for creating goal scoring opportunities out of various systems of play.

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong - Chris Anderson, David Sally
Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the centre of it all are the numbers—a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favour of how things actually are.

Football Against the Enemy - Simon Kuper
Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped them.

u/jimbelk · 16 pointsr/DMAcademy

Basically you need the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. There are also "premium" versions of these books printed in 2012 that include many years worth of errata, and you should try to get those if you can.

The three core books are enough to play, but of course Wizards of the Coast published a very large number of supplements to the game that add more rules, systems, and advice for DM's to use and more options, classes, and spells for players. One of these is the Dungeon Master's Guide II, which includes a large bit of advice for DM's, more magic items, and some new rules and systems, including a detailed system for building towns. It was a fine supplement, but is certainly not essential for running a campaign, and I wouldn't even describe it as the best 4th book for a new dungeon master to buy.

Actually, if you're just starting out DMing, the best 4th book to get would probably be a pre-published adventure, or even a mega-adventure or adventure path. The Sunless Citadel is an excellent adventure for 1st-level PC's, though you should check first whether anyone in your group has played through it before. As for mega-adventures, both The Red Hand of Doom and Age of Worms have excellent reputations, though the latter was published in Dungeon magazine which makes it hard to find a copy.

u/MisterGone5 · 15 pointsr/chess

I might suggest some reading material that may help out your chess thinking process.

Silman's The Amateur's Mind and How to Reassess your Chess are both great for any beginner to moderate strength player, as they focus on understandable concepts and fixing common problems in many people's game.

u/M0dusPwnens · 14 pointsr/rpg

More than just requiring it, Dungeon World is particularly good at teaching improv.

The biggest thing is to focus on the GM Moves. You're improvising, but you're improvising within a very rigid system. The GM Moves aren't suggestions. When you GM Dungeon World, literally all you do is make GM Moves. Especially at first, you should keep the GM Moves in front of you 100% of the time, and you shouldn't be afraid to take a minute each time before you speak to deliberately look at the GM Moves and pick one.

Probably the biggest mistake newer GMs make is to think that GM Moves are things you do to punctuate your improv - like you're just riffing and then, when you want to "make something happen", you do a GM Move. That's how player moves work (to a degree), but it's not how GM Moves work, and playing like that will cause the game to stall out, especially when players are rolling a lot of successes.

GM Moves are the only kind of thing you do as GM. If you're talking, you're making a GM Move. New GMs usually quickly grasp the idea of making a GM Move every time the players miss a roll, but you also make one every time they look to you to see what happens next. Every time. When the PCs are having a conversation with an NPC, every time they look to you to find out how the NPC responds, they're looking at you to see what happens next: make a GM Move. Every single conversational turn should be a GM Move. You won't manage that, but the closer you get, the better the game will be.

Even when they roll a hit, when they succeed, as soon as they look to you, make a GM Move. Don't invalidate their success, but don't let success take the steam out of the game either. If they Defy Danger and roll a 10, cool. If they keep talking and say what they do next, cool - don't interrupt them. If they dodge out of the way of the falling pillar and then look at you to see what happens next, guess what, make a GM move. Don't do anything involving the falling pillar - they already succeeded at avoiding that, no double jeopardy and no hurting people for rolling successes - but that doesn't mean don't do anything: make a GM Move (maybe reinforcements show up, maybe the silence after the crash of the pillar is broken by a dragon's roar, etc.).

Don't wait for the game to stall out. GM Moves aren't just consequences for bad rolls, and they're also not just a way to kickstart a game that's running out of steam. GM Moves are just your half of the conversation. If you do it right, the game won't need kickstarting - it won't run out of steam in the first place.

For the most part, go with "hard" GM Moves when someone misses a roll. Every other time the players look to you, go with "soft" GM Moves.

Fronts and Monster Moves are the same thing. If you understand how GM Moves work, they just give you situation-specific GM Moves, which can make improv a little easier. If you treat them as conventional prep without understanding GM Moves and what they do to keep the game flowing, your game will stall out and you also won't be "playing to find out what happens".

The other big thing is to stop worrying about being fair. Play by the rules. That cuts both ways: don't screw players over unfairly, but also don't let them off the hook. And letting them off the hook is by far the bigger problem most of the time. It's not up to you to make sure they survive. There is no principle about building "balanced" encounters. If you want to play a tactics game, don't play Dungeon World. If you want to play Dungeon World, don't pull punches. Put things that make sense in the world and the story in front of the characters, and don't worry about putting things that are of the "appropriate difficulty" in front of the players. Uneven fights are fun.

Read the Dungeon World Guide for sure.

Personally, I think Dungeon World is far, far easier to play after playing Apocalypse World (the game it's based on) - it's easier to see how and why things work the way they do without all of the D&D flavor elements, which can be misleading. I would seriously consider running a campaign of Apocalypse World (typically about 6-10 sessions) unless the theme turns you off completely.

In terms of improv for RPGs, I really like the book Play Unsafe. It's a quick and easy read that has a lot of actual, concrete advice and instruction. I found it really helpful both as a player and a GM once we started playing more narrative games.

u/blacksheepcannibal · 13 pointsr/AskGameMasters

> I want to start a Pathfinder group with two players who just want to have fun and don't mind if it's not a real campaign

You're wanting to use one of the most complicated, rules intensive, and prep-heavy games on the market. In a perfect world, that's the first thing I would change.

There are a variety of TTRPGs out there in all genres that require little, or often times explicitly no prepwork of any sort to play very nicely. For instance, when I play Blades in the Dark, I keep my stuff in a 3-ring binder. It gets shut when we finish the session, it gets opened when we start, and I don't touch it otherwise.

But the normal response is "but I want to play Pathfinder because (insert whatever reason here) and no other game will do".

Read this and this and do yourself a favor and read this and take what you can from it.

There are a few other tricks, but that's a pretty reasonable starting point.

Other than the best solution, which is to play a no-or-low-prep game.

Another consideration: are you sure you want to play a TTRPG not not a legacy boardgame like Decent, or Gloomhaven, or some other legacy game like that? Especially if you're mostly interested in the mechanical aspects of fighting and such, it's a good consideration.

u/kzielinski · 12 pointsr/rpg

Practice. Most of the literature on how to do this comes from Improvisational theater. There is also this book which bridges the gap as it where.

u/Sahasrara · 11 pointsr/AskReddit

Buy him The Dangerous Book For Boys.

Get him climbing trees and catching frogs. Eight years old is no time to be sitting indoors, and certainly not the age to be exposed to the internet.

u/99999999999999999989 · 11 pointsr/DnD

Seems that the door/chest is lined on the inside with flint. Steel, meet flint. Sparks, meet gunpowder.

Dust of Sneezing and Choking - if you fail a save, you fall on the floor unable to do anything other than sneeze, cough and choke for some number of rounds/turns. Great time for a monster to attack.

As far as the other dust, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Wouldn't want to give too much away to any of my players that may be reading this.

Also, the Grimtooth's Traps book series has entire chapters devoted to 'curing' door kickers and room choppers.

u/jacobolus · 11 pointsr/math

Your post has too little context/content for anyone to give you particularly relevant or specific advice. You should list what you know already and what you’re trying to learn. I find it’s easiest to research a new subject when I have a concrete problem I’m trying to solve.

But anyway, I’m going to assume you studied up through single variable calculus and are reasonably motivated to put some effort in with your reading. Here are some books which you might enjoy, depending on your interests. All should be reasonably accessible (to, say, a sharp and motivated undergraduate), but they’ll all take some work:

(in no particular order)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (wikipedia)
To Mock a Mockingbird (wikipedia)
Structure in Nature is a Strategy for Design
Geometry and the Imagination
Visual Group Theory (website)
The Little Schemer (website)
Visual Complex Analysis (website)
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos (website)
Music, a Mathematical Offering (website)
QED
Mathematics and its History
The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics
Proofs from THE BOOK (wikipedia)
Concrete Mathematics (website, wikipedia)
The Symmetries of Things
Quantum Computing Since Democritus (website)
Solid Shape
On Numbers and Games (wikipedia)
Street-Fighting Mathematics (website)

But also, you’ll probably get more useful response somewhere else, e.g. /r/learnmath. (On /r/math you’re likely to attract downvotes with a question like this.)

You might enjoy:
https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/2mkmk0/a_compilation_of_useful_free_online_math_resources/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mathbooks/top/?sort=top&t=all

u/kyle_knightmare · 11 pointsr/poker

Come on my man. You made it this far into the internet, surely you can type grinders manual into google and see what comes up.

However this time I'll do you a favor since I can't get on your case then NOT help you.

https://www.amazon.com/Grinders-Manual-Complete-Course-Online-ebook/dp/B01GBFF890/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542815341&sr=8-1&keywords=grinders+manual

u/nathan301 · 10 pointsr/poker

If you're looking to play cash then I highly recommend The Grinder's Manual. Does an excellent job of covering the default strategy of most situations you will encounter and explaining when to deviate from those defaults.

u/BBQ_HaX0r · 9 pointsr/reddevils

They talk about this in "The Numbers Game." I actually think they mention Jose Mourinho and how he parrots or says a similar line about the English applauding corners when they're such lowly propositions. The chance to score from a corner is like <1% and yet people genuinely believe them to be good chances.

u/lazyslacker · 8 pointsr/DIY

You cut out and glue together the pieces from this book
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Working-Paper-Clock/dp/0060910666

u/CreeDorofl · 8 pointsr/billiards

Not sure how far you're trying to get, or how serious you want to take it.

I've reached sort of 'good amateur' level which means the weakest pro still beats me 2-1. What they call a B player, or a Fargo 600. I mention that, because I think it's maybe the max level you can get being almost completely casual.

Completely casual = no regular practice (or if I do it's a random, spur of the moment, once a month thing), I hardly do tournaments, I sometimes do leagues, and the bulk of my playing is just shooting around with buddies.

If you bring that level of dedication, which is very low, you can probably reach a similar level in maybe... I dunno.. 4-5 years if you take it seriously, get good books and videos, get good live instruction, and just play regularly. I did it the slow way and took 20 years lol... but that's partly due to bad habits. If you avoid those bad habits you can avoid about ten years of stalled progress. It's good you got some corrected early!

If you're nuts about practice, tear through books and videos, have no social life / family / long work hours, you could maybe do it in 2. I've heard of people doing this this but never saw it personally.

So to get there, this is I would do:

1. This is true of all sports but especially pool... you want to make sure your fundamentals, stance, etc. are completely normal and textbook. The more 'quirks' you have, the harder it is to learn. There are a few options here.

- If you wanted to do it properly (IMO) you need a pro instructor with great mechanics to evaluate your form and advise you how to fix any remaining bad habits. That might be a bit expensive. Let's say minimum $50 max... $200ish.

- You could also video yourself and submit it to sites and have people review and give advice. But of course these people may not play at a high level or recognize good/bad form when they see it :) But they can probably spot obvious problems.

- If you wanted to do it 100% by yourself, the fundamentals 'bible' is "Play Great Pool". But it's an expensive book, $70. The site doesn't look super professional but the instruction is solid gold. The author is/was a pro level player and coach.

- The cheapest and easiest method, is just read books and watch youtube videos on the subject. But without someone else to review your actual stance and stroke, you may have problems that you're completely unaware of.

2. Go through the 99 Critical Shots, mentioned elsewhere. It's a quickstart guide to pool basically. It'll take you through the basics including forward and backspin, then move on to more advanced stuff involving sidespin, and also cover banks, kicks, caroms, and cue ball position routes. Excellent and inexpensive book. Take it to the pool hall, go through the shots 1 by 1.

3. If you have cash to burn, Dr. Dave's VEPS is sort of a visual version of this, with a lot more. It's a great video series. There's actual several series, after the basics he has some stuff on strategy, a series on 8 ball, another on 9 and 10 ball. https://drdavebilliards.com/veps/purchase.html

4. If you don't have cash to burn, he puts a ton of this info on youtube for free, and there's another guy (Tor Lowry) whose youtube instructional stuff is really good.

5. All of the above is for solo learning and practice. Once you play with other people you'll have to learn strategy and runout patterns and such. Besides the Dr. Dave videos I mentioned, Phil Capelle's "Play your best 8-ball" is great. There are other games to learn too, 9ball and 10ball are tremendously popular. There are some ancient but still useful videos on 9-ball from Bert Kinister... drills that strengthen your ability to play common shots in this type of game. Don't let the low video quality fool you, the drills themselves are very handy. http://videos.bertkinister.com/

6. Once you can actuall run racks and play pretty good pool, you still have one more hurdle to overcome... being able to play at your normal skill level under pressure. A lot of players shoot great in their basement, but fall apart in tournaments and league. I suggest joining a league to start, then trying tournaments. And possibly gambling if that's your thing, though don't let anyone tell you it's necessary. Plenty of great players stick almost entirely to tournaments.

Good luck with it!

u/PollutedSnow · 8 pointsr/origami

YouTuber Sarah Adams has a couple of videos on tessellations. Here's a playlist of her videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13A44D22E042BB7F


Book-wise, I am personally very fond of Eric Gjerde's Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs.
You can buy that here: https://www.amazon.com/Origami-Tessellations-Awe-Inspiring-Geometric-Designs/dp/1568814518


Good luck and happy folding!

u/DrChrisp · 8 pointsr/boardgames

There ARE several good books, I would highly recommend

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

Kobold Guide to Board Game Design

BUT neither of those books actually teaches you mechanics and balancing, they just explore problems and ideas that you might run into. Playing games is how you learn different mechanics and how they combine, and balancing is just a thing that happens naturally as you playtest and observe what players do.

The coolest part of board game design is it doesnt require any previous training. Just grab some notecards and a pen and start exploring ideas. When you find something that seems fun, explore deeper into that idea.

You also might wanna check out /r/tabletopgamedesign

[Edit: Spelling]

u/CoReCicero · 7 pointsr/math

Any poker math is kind of situational; you need to have a good understanding of poker in order for any of these sources to be interesting. That being said, I love poker and also maths, and reading that I've enjoyed have been:

GTO Range Builder Blog: http://blog.gtorangebuilder.com/

Applications of No Limit Hold 'Em: https://www.amazon.com/Applications-No-Limit-Hold-Matthew-Janda/dp/1880685558

If you're just trying to learn poker, there are some great youtube tutorials and The Grinder's Manual (https://www.amazon.com/Grinders-Manual-Complete-Course-Online-ebook/dp/B01GBFF890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482117534&sr=1-1&keywords=the+grinders+manual)
is an incredible introduction, although a bit pricy.

u/turlockmike · 7 pointsr/magicTCG

The best book on strategy I've ever read is called "How to reassess your chess" link.

There are some really key things to be aware of.

  1. Imbalances. Each player in magic is playing a different deck. And even if it's the same deck, you will have different opening hands. Know what cards are good and what cards are bad against each deck. Know what cards your opponent can interact with favorably and vice versa.

  2. Come up with a plan. After you know what your opponent is likely to play, look at your initial hand and come up with a plan. A plan can be "Control the game until I get 6 lands to play elspeth on an empty board". Just randomly playing cards, even in a deck like RDW is going to lose you games. Recognize the weakness's and decide on a plan. Sideboarding plays into this a lot. If you are on the play after sideboarding and you feel like the agressor, then be agressive. Sometimes players will often become too passive after sideboard and ruin their opening hand.

  3. Play intentionally. This is a hard one for a lot of players including myself. Everything you do should have a purpose. Take your time and do the math to decide the right decision. Figure out what cards would you lose to and see if you can afford to play around them. Make decisions based on odds and information you have.

  4. Never blame your loss on luck. Although some games are impossible to win, there are always ways you can play better to improve your overall odds.

  5. Mull aggressively. Mulling in draft and sealed is usually devastating, but not so in standard. Getting a chance to mulligan is huge and use it to your advantage.

  6. Live for the game. If you want to be good, or even great then reading articles, brewing, playing daily are all good things. If you want to be the best, then make magic your life. Spend your free time playing it. Think about it as you fall asleep. Become obsessed. Look at Jim Harbaugh. That guy is insane when it comes to football. It's all he thinks about. And it makes him one of the best coaches around. If you aren't looking to go pro, then at least play magic daily and purposefully. Doing Momir dailies is not going to help you (very much).

  7. Pick a competitive deck. It doesn't have to be the best, but as long as it's competitive, then stick with a deck, learn the ins and outs and become an expert.


    Anyway, even if you don't play chess, I highly recommend that book. It will make you better at games in general.
u/TensionMask · 7 pointsr/chess

I hope the responses you get put you on the right track. But there are books on this topic such as this excellent one which is 650+ pages. I only say this to point out that anything you read here is only scratching the surface. It just depends how deeply you want to learn.

u/remembertosmilebot · 7 pointsr/chess

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games

Understanding Chess Move by Move

Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953

Tal-Botvinnik 1960

Alekhine My Best Games of Chess, 1908-1937

---

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

u/noir_lord · 7 pointsr/chess

The Chernev book is awesome, one of my favourites.

In a similar vein Nunn's Understanding Chess Move by Move is brilliant.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412

Also CT-ART 4.0 (android and iOS) is cheap and imo the gold standard for thematic tactics training :).

Other books I own and like.

Fundamental Chess Openings (covers a lot of ground explaining the goals of each without reams of variations).

Laskers manual of chess (oldie but goodie - get the new edition).

Positional Decision Making in Chess Gelfand).

Try not to buy too many books until you've read and got what you can from each, also revisit them once in a while because as you improve you'll find stuff you didn't see/understand first time around.

u/kalas_malarious · 7 pointsr/gamedev

Are you looking for how to make games? Not just programming, but actually make them? I have some suggestions, but they often aren't about programming. There is a million books about programming, but finding those that talk about the ideas and ways to successively improve is a better point to start from.

  • The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
  • Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games
  • Kobold Guide to Board Game Design

    Making video games is easy. Put the pitchfork down and let me explain. Anyone can open unity and load some assets and call it a game. Making good games is difficult, and even if you are not looking at card/board games, you should be prepared to test your game on paper. It is easier to make iterative improvement if you can look for mechanical and mathematical issues by scrawling some notes on paper cards.

    For a book that covers both programming and game design, I also suggest this one.

    These books will cover the psychology, the pitfalls, etc that come with making a game. You do not need a class to make a game portfolio. You can often get things done faster by a book, because it's goal is to teach as you read, not set a timer for 15 weeks. It can assume you will do it over 26 weeks or more if the book is huge.

    Anyway, this is a much larger reply than I intended. Hopefully these are informative. If nothing else, they are significantly cheaper than a class.
u/plexsoup · 7 pointsr/rpg

The first that come to mind are Apocalypse World and all the subsequent variants, especially Dungeon World and Monster Hearts. They specifically demand that you ask questions and use the answers, then play to find out what happens. They forbid you from preparing elaborate adventures on rails.

Also, Donjon has system mechanics for this. Players get to manufacture reality when they roll well.

There's a book called "Play Unsafe" that does a pretty good job of describing improvisational techniques from theatre, for use in Roleplaying. It's a bit short though.

Check out Steven Lumpkin's awesome GM'ing for apocalypse world on itmejp's channel. Rollplay R&D

u/milkplantation · 6 pointsr/leafs

>Except you can play your 3 max contract guys 40/48 minutes in the NBA. Not so much in Hockey.

​

Good point. There have been books written about this: Strong link vs weak link sports. But it appears hockey is a strong link sport. So you're better off upgrading you're high end talent. Good article on it here.

u/fadedcheese · 6 pointsr/billiards

99 Critcal Shots in Pool. Is a great book to start with. https://www.amazon.com/99-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

u/Frognosticator · 6 pointsr/dndnext

Old modules for inspiration:

Keep on the Borderlands

The Village of Hommlet

The Isle of Dread

I-6 Ravenloft

Glorious game supplements:

GM Gems (Goodman Games)

Heroes of Legend (Central Casting)

Grimtooth's Traps

Need an adventure tonight?

Any old issue of Dungeon Magazine

u/gte910h · 6 pointsr/rpg

1> Stop with the maps to start. Draw far cruder diagrams and handwave more. Positioning is far less important

2> Stop the automatic skill rolls. No one rolls unless called for. Succeed automatically a lot more

3> Don't do initiative. REALLY REALLY don't go from person to person, make the ACTION swing back and forth to people though.

4> Explain moves aren't 'buttons' like they are in 4e. They're pattern matching (like voicerecognition on their phone) that only sometimes goes off. Oftentimes, just what they narrated, happens.

5> Do not prohibit them by getting XP from failing. If you're not going to cause complications worthy enough for XP from a roll, don't do the roll. Then they KNOW if they do ambitious stuff with a interesting chance of failure, XP can come.

6> Do not swap to giving Xp from killing stuff. XP is key in DW.

7> Use up their resources can make min maxers whiney. Ask them why they're whining in the game where picking up a kobold and tossing him into their ranks requires little more in the way of rolls than hitting them with a sword.

8> Don't succumb to tiny +1 -1 bonuses on efforts. Make the consequences of failure bigger, or make the action impossible or easy.

9> If they are suffering from OverCautiousItits around doors. Make a move for "If the party treats doors like an archeological dig site, roll 2d6+number of people in the party examining a door. 10+ the door falls open silently without prompting, 7-9, it does and the people on the other side hear them coming, 2-6, something bad happens elsewhere in the plot advancing a grim portent. Cutaway to a mysterious scene of things getting worse"

10> Really get them in trouble with the law in interesting ways when they are criminal

11> Read Play Unsafe, and prompt them for descriptions of things all the time and build off them.

12> Always strongly foreshadow a particular type of trap and give palpable hints to it's existence.

u/iscariot · 6 pointsr/origami

Really anything will work at first, but it is a lot more rewarding to use decent paper. I've found Tant to be a great compromise between price and quality; here's where I got mine.

As for instructions, it really depends what you're interested in making.

I would recommend YouTube videos since you're just starting out; it will pretty much eliminate the confusion that comes along with diagrams and crease patterns.

Sara Adams has a great channel, as does Jo Nakashima. There are a bunch more, but those two are what I remember off the top of my head.

Just searching around I found one for a hummingbird - I haven't folded it or watched it before, but it looks decent.

I almost exclusively fold tessellations; I'm not sure if that would interest you or not. Shuzo Fujimoto's Hydrangea might be a good place to start. Or Eric Gjerde's Tiled Hexagons, which is a more traditional tessellations, although it isn't diagrammed as well here as in his book (which you should definitely get if you are at all interested in tessellations).

u/walterspleen · 6 pointsr/poker

Poker is a fun hobby, and it becomes more fun the more you learn. Don't listen to these guys trying to discourage you from playing live. Have realistic expectations: don't expect to make a lot of money, remember that you'll only cash some of the time, and do not gamble with money that you can't afford to lose.

For these kind of small stakes live tournaments I think Harrington on Hold 'em will give you a basic understanding of tournament play that should give you an edge on the field. Good luck!

u/c-fox · 6 pointsr/poker

It depends whether you are playing tournaments, cash, on-line or live, micro-SnG's etc. Could you clarify this?

I mainly play live tournaments with buy ins between $50 and $1000. The books that helped my game are:

u/[deleted] · 6 pointsr/chess

Dude, good god. LOL. That's an INSANE amount of tactics problems. Definitely props to your discipline and focus; it is impressive.

I make training routines for fun. Right now I'm 1800uscf. (I should be careful talking about myself, people get butthurt if I sound too "great" to them.) but aside from that, I'd like to assure you my latest scalp was a player rated 2051uscf; this is MERELY a reference to tell you what I am doing seems to be working. Now, back to the important thing, YOU!

I would like to suggest to you a plan based on raising your skills in every area of the game.
--------------

--------------------

Tactics: ChessTempo Everyday. You already do this! so that's really good. You could probably afford to do less than 100... or even 50... lol. I'd probably say around 10-30 problems daily.

---------------------------

Positional understanding: I'd recommend something like

  1. Jeremy Silman's Reassess your chess 4th edition, [http://www.amazon.com/How-Reassess-Your-Chess-Fourth/dp/1890085138/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y/189-2411552-9649030]

  2. or another great one, Jeremy Silman's "The Amatuer's Mind" [http://www.amazon.com/The-Amateurs-Mind-Turning-Misconceptions/dp/1890085022]

    -------------------------------

    Annotated Games: As far as annotated games are concerned: Logical chess move by move should be serving you well for now. So you're covered there and on tactics.

    ------------------------------

    Endgame: Now, I swear to God i'm not an advertiser for Jeremy Silman, but I'd also recommend his endgame book: "Jeremy Silman's Complete Endgame Course" [http://www.amazon.com/Silmans-Complete-Endgame-Course-Beginner/dp/1890085103/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z]

    ------------------------------

    Openings: These are the hardest thing I have recommending to people... I wouldn't get a very serious opening book right now. Training openings on a serious level will probably cause a decline in your overall chess ability for simply not having enough time to spread out your training. I'd recommend checking out some wikipedia sources or maybe even Roman's Lab with white's 1.d4 on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9Ax29jZ1k). That series served me well vs 1700-2000uscf in tournament play.

    As for black I usually just say learn something solid vs e4 and d4. Like Caro-kann and Queen's Gambit Declined. Check it out on Wikipedia and look up games on chessgames.com

    1.Caro-Kann [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro_Kann]

    2.Queen's Gambit Declined [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Gambit_Declined]

    -------------------------



    Then to wrap this all up into a schedule i'd do

    Daily: Mon-Sun, Chess Tempo and 1 annotated game

    Every Other day: Mon-Tues-Thurs-Sat, jeremy Silman's Amateur's Mind or Reassess your chess (Which ever you own or buy)

    Weekends:Friday-Saturday-Sunday, I'd do opening and endgame studies.



u/NoB0ss · 6 pointsr/poker

Hey, welcome to poker! Yeah, this question gets asked a lot but don't worry, we've all been there! Don't listen to all of the grumpy people on this sub, if every poker player was like them, poker wouldn't be as fun as it is. You should definitely know about our FAQ. It's a little hidden but you'll probably find some information relevant to you (if you dig a little there are actually several links to new player guides).

I'll also give you a few tips:

  • Start by making sure you know all the rules. You should also know the hand rankings like the back of your hand. There should be no hesitation as to "what wins, the flush or the straight? 4 of a kind or straight flush? what happens if we both have the same hand?"
  • Play-money poker is a great way to learn and practice those things, but don't expect to learn good strategy from there.
  • Once you're comfortable with the previous steps, you'll probably want to start playing with real money. Start small and be warned, there is a steep learning curve. You should probably try out the different formats. Figure out whether you prefer tournaments or cash games, because you'll want to focus on one or the other in the next step.
  • Now that you're playing real money, it's probably a good idea to learn some strategy. There are tons of resources out there, some free, some very expensive, and some great, some terrible. (so do your research before you spend tons of money on training) Beware of outdated advice. If you prefer tournaments, study tournaments, and if you prefer cash games, study cash games. It's better to be good at one than average at both. You may want to change in the future, don't worry. I used to prefer tournaments as a beginner but I eventually decided I liked cash games better.
  • Live poker is incredibly fun, but the stakes are way higher than online, so it's not a bad idea to play a fair amount online before you sit down in a poker room with hundreds of dollars in front of you. (Or look for / start some home games)

    If you want to learn cash game strategy, here is where I would start:

  • From the Ground Up, a video course that's seriously amazing. It's done wonders for my game. Also comes with one free month of Run it Once Essential, one of the best training sites.
  • If you're more of a book person, The Grinder's Manual is an excellent resource, by Peter Clarke, the same guy who did From the Ground Up. It's also a good companion to the course, but optional. The course is more recent.

    Once you're ready to move beyond that, training sites are the way to go. There are many of them, and a new one pops up every now and then, but Upswing Poker and Run it Once are two currently good (and very popular) ones.

    I won't speak on tournament resources because I honestly don't know what the best ones are. I'm sure with a bit of research you'll find what you need if that's the way you want to go.

    Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, I'm always happy to help out a new player. Good luck on your poker journey!
u/a-r-c · 5 pointsr/billiards
u/jarkyttaa · 5 pointsr/tabletopgamedesign

As a quick note, add two spaces after your links in order to create a line break for your headings.

Another good resource for icons is http://game-icons.net/.

The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is a solid repository of advice for designers.

Also, this is a bit specific to me and won't have the same impact for every designer, but this was the single most important piece of advice I've ever read regarding game design: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11885/you-have-have-guts-ask-question

The single biggest issue I had with designing when I started is that I would solve design problems by adding new rules to cover any edge cases that came up. "This thing is exploitable? Let's add a new mechanic that fixes that." "This part is confusing? Let's add another system that helps the player better understand the existing system." There was some amount of give and take, but it largely just boiled down to bloated designs. Ever since I started designing with the philosophy that no rule is sacred in mind, I became a much more competent designer basically overnight.

u/MagicPirateWilly · 5 pointsr/tabletopgamedesign

This book does a great job on giving industry tips and tricks on game design in the form of topic based essays and is in my opinion the best way to get immersed in the culture of game design as a newbie. https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

On the topics of game balance, theory, pitfalls, tips, I think I speak in line with many users of this and other game design communities when I say: "Just get something out that is broken and messy and put it in front of a group of unbiased playtesters." Once you get your game/RPG system in front of real players you'll quickly find out what their experiences are with what you've built and where to take your design for its next iteration.

In general:
"Playtest early and playtest often."

u/3226 · 5 pointsr/Minecraft

Also, scoring a fold by flipping the scalpel over to the non-bladed side and drawing it against the metal rule gives a very sharp neat fold. I've been assembling this thing lately.

u/lawofmurphy · 5 pointsr/sixers

Basketball is a Strong Link sport. One player can cover up the ills of subpar players. One Michael Jordan or one LeBron James makes you a contender.

Football is more of a Weak Link sport. One weak corner can submarine a defense. A leaky left tackle can be a huge problem for an offense. Obviously, an elite, all-world QB (Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, etc.) can be a different story, but in general, a football team just needs a higher percentage of good players to make a great team.

That's why basketball has less "Mortgaging everything for the #1 pick". No team will give up a shot at the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James for anything. It is not sound strategy like it is in football.

u/WedgeTalon · 5 pointsr/DnD

I'm going to disagree on your point of editions. 3.5 is still massive, even with Pathfinder eating into it. WotC just recently released a new printing of the PHB, DMG, and MM1. There's many out there who still play this and have a trove of these books. I've played in several groups over the past 5 years, and they all played 3.5*. That said, most 3.5 stuff could probably be covered at the same time as Pathfinder.

^(*And I never sought out any specific system when joining. I've actually been itching to try out Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, the new Marvel RPG, and just the other day backed the kickstarter for "OVA: The Anime RPG". Too bad I only have time to be in one group!)

u/Reddit4Play · 5 pointsr/rpg

I didn't actually include a lot of resources to read, there are many more out there, really as many resources as there are different ways to play "old school". I'd like to rectify that in this follow-up post (and if it seems like a lot of research, well, it is forty years of RPG history after all!), in addition to covering a few topics I forgot! What use is an incomplete guide, you know?

Old school play originally came from war-gaming (OD&D was a basically a game created as a supplement to a fantasy supplement for a medieval miniatures war-game - it often referenced the Chainmail rules and basically assumed you owned them already), and therefore the very original way of playing was as a sort of "world commander" (GM) creating a scenario that the players, taking on the roles of one or more individuals, would attempt to "defeat" (in this case working together, rather than against each other, as war-gaming usually went instead). This style of play is most evident in so-called tournament modules like Tomb of Horrors, or, in a more recent incarnation, the fourthcore movement, which endeavors to bring this sort of gamist challenge to 4e D&D's more modern ruleset.

Over time, the players usually began to think less of themselves as being a commander of a crew of soldiers and more as a puppetmaster acting out the role of a single person or rarely a few people, and thus the more modern (as early as 1980 of course!) method of playing RPGs came about. There have been varying levels of character immersion since then, but basically old school covers the whole gamut of "DM vs players tournament module" to "collaborative story telling and high adventure".

Dice, or at least random results to do with luck, are very important to old school gaming. Gygax was known to consider diceless RPGs to be fine enough games and good fun, but to not actually be RPGs (and as he invented the genre can we truly argue? I mean we can but that's neither here nor there :p), which required elements of luck represented by dice.

As old school RPGs evolved, their rules-lite nature became their defining factor. Things like weapon vs armor tables and weapon speed tables were mentioned by Gygax himself to be detrimental to the core rules of AD&D since they were too complicated, and that it was better to have a fast-running fascimile of reality than a slow-running slightly-better fascimile of reality. (Notably he said that he would've considered releasing them in a duelling supplement had he it all to do over again, but that even though he could've made truly complicated rules for combat, being an avid miniatures war-gamer, he avoided it on purpose for the above reasons).

Finally, "old school" sort of straddles the gap between "give the players what they want by breaking the rules" and "are you kidding? Stop powergaming by ignoring the rules!" as a result of the broad mix of above attitudes. The best way to qualify this, I think, is to consider each breach of the rules a magnanimous gift by the GM to the players, and that at any time you can simply say "nah, not this time". You'll find the level of rules adherance that is the line in the sand for you and your group sooner or later, though, so don't worry about it.

So, with all of those things I sort of forgot being covered, without further ado an OSR resources list:

The Dungeon Alphabet - A product from Goodman Games (the same people who brought us the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG) shows a serious understanding of what makes an old school dungeon, well, old school. It's in easy A-to-Z format, complete with tables (there's those darn tables again, I told you!) and tons of great information.

If you're at all familiar with 4th edition D&D, or really even if you're not, the items on the fourthcore site listed above is a good glimpse into the kind of mindset behind creating tournament style dungeon experiences. It also brings to the table a fourthcore alphabet, which is inspired by the above dungeon alphabet text, which is basically an A-to-Z on how to create a dark and deadly dungeon experience a la tomb of horrors. The two alphabetical tomes go well together, and neither is particularly reliant on system statistics but rather contain ideas.

Any of the Grimtooth's Traps books (some also available in PDF I think) go well with the above content for providing, well, traps, obviously. These are traps of the sort of fiendish DM-vs-players tournament variety, but by using the "rulings not rules" mentality can easily be softened as appropriate by just changing out some damage dice or making deadly effects merely debilitating as necessary.

The random esoteric creature generator is something that you can really get a kick out of for creating weird-ass monsters. As mentioned, stranger things are better, and sometimes even campy material is ok (random tables lead to a lot of this kind of thing :p). I highly recommend using it to generate a few critters and then place them in roughly appropriate areas or on roughly appropriate tables and just see how things go.

This post on ENWorld - This thing is brilliant because it breaks down dungeons to their simplest possible components. Applicable to any sort of level design, really, including for video games, but if you're going to make a megadungeon that's something to consider as priority #1.

This blog post - Contains really good ideas about how to fight giant critters using a few house-rules in an old-school framework.

This site may have some overlap with megadungeons.com, but it's also another good megadungeon resource and old school site.

This post has more of those lovely random tables, this time for making random idols. Very helpful for creating the strange and unexpected.

Finally this post brings to bear an analysis of how to make magic systems that are a bit less ordinary by making them difficult to quantify scientifically. This is extremely hard to pull off without seeming entirely arbitrary, but being arbitrary is also sometimes part of being old school, so there you go.

By reading what each of these links and their related content have to say I'm sure you'll have your next few weeks full of burning your eyes out from staring at your monitor, but hey, I did say I'd try to be exhaustive!

And now, appropriately enough, I'm exhausted from typing so much, so I'm going to go to something else. Hope that all helped!

u/DeLuxPuck · 5 pointsr/cripplingalcoholism

Book of Erotic Fantasy...snicker geek porn FTW.

u/jenniferinalaska · 5 pointsr/gaming

Well, yes and yes. My current character constantly seeks sex. He now has three children because of it as well (which is thankful since the area our characters are in is plagued with infertility). One game, my character had sex 12 times with 9 women just within 2 days of in-game time. He rolled great constitution otherwise it would've been too much for any man (granted being a dwarf does help). As for Fifty Shades of Gray, kind of. My last character was a psychopathic serial killer who would seduce men into bed, pleasure them (without having intercourse herself), and either cast a spell of impotence (permanent spell, btw), chop their penis off, or kill them. She would go easier on women, leaving them with bodily scars instead. (I gave her a super fucked up back story that caused her to hate men, especially men in authority). While much darker than Fifty Shades of Gray, the BDSM aspect is there. We have this to help us with all of our sex play, since it happens so often.

u/loudmouthman · 5 pointsr/rpg

alternatively go ahead and read Graham Walmsleys 'Play unsafe' bring that to the table as a GM or a Player and see how you can make a RPG session become those nights stories you remember . http://www.amazon.co.uk/Play-Unsafe-Improvisation-Change-Roleplay/dp/1434824594

u/Eduren · 4 pointsr/books

The Dangerous Book For Boys is something I really wish I had when I was 9.

u/i_made_your_pizza · 4 pointsr/funny

There was a great study recently comparing the competitive advantage of spending money on superstars vs using that money building up a solidly above average rest of the team.

They did this with football/soccer and basketball. Basically what they found is spending money on superstars is pretty wasteful in soccer and doesn't really improve your team as much as investing in the whole team. Whereas in basketball the opposite is true. It actually is worth spending a lot of money on a Lebron James or Steph Curry.

So all in all he might be right. In the big picture Ronaldo is probably overpaid while Lebron is probably not...

Source: this book https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560

u/MonkeyParadiso · 4 pointsr/soccer

I don't disagree with your point. And im making the broader claim that working to improve your worst, rather than your best is a more effective strategy in soccer, and perhaps many aspects of life/society at large:
https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

u/Inxanity1 · 4 pointsr/itmejp

Yeah. Go buy yourself the Players Handbook, the Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0786962461/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2NEMPNK3P5YZZ&coliid=I5YGJHRSD02XZ

u/Fauchard1520 · 4 pointsr/Pathfinder_RPG
u/deepcleansingguffaw · 4 pointsr/rpg
u/PirateKilt · 4 pointsr/rpg

For PURE Eeeeeeeevil though, design your own module, liberally sprinkled with additions from the Grimtooth's Traps series of books...

u/BrooklynKnight · 4 pointsr/AskScienceFiction

When it comes to fiction and magic, the source of power behind virginity has always been the purity of the host/victim/source. Just how pure they are depends on the standards of the people in the setting.

I'd say a simple guideline is simple vaginal intercourse. YMMV though.

Edit - Just realized I didn't answer everything.

At what point does a virgin become a non-virgin? At the same point as in reality, vaginal penetration with a phallus. If you're asking when the magic of the spell or ritual takes effect? That depends on which spell/ritual you're casting. Some might be instant, but others might require the completion of the full ritual or parts of the ritual.

Sadly, as we see in many fantasy stories rape does indeed count, otherwise villians wouldn't be rescuing virgin princesses would they?

Technicalities are really up to the setting and who's telling the story. A girl who broke her hymen riding a horse or doing farming work is still pure, so the magic should work. A girl who only takes it anal to retain her purity is a bit of a joke but technically she's still pure. So that really depends on the setting/storyteller/rules of magic in your world.

What happens when someone de-flowers a virgin during a magical ritual? Well.....again, that depends on the ritual. Sometimes the virgin dies, sometimes she becomes posessed at the moment of coitus. Really, there's no limit or rule it's whatever serves the story you're writing.

If you wanna check out sex and magic with actual rules as far as gaming goes, check out The Book of Erotic Fantasy

u/mmmmmmmike · 4 pointsr/math
u/TessaCr · 4 pointsr/chess

My new years "chessalutions" (if you will) was to do more study and play more. Unfortunately I have not done the latter as much due to work but I am hitting the books more and enjoying reading through Understanding Chess Move by Move by GM Dr. John Nunn. May look to do more tournaments but for the time being I am focusing on my job (I am a hotel manager so it is pretty busy all the time 24/7) and once I get that under control I can focus my attention on chessing.

u/PokerHawk · 3 pointsr/poker

Read anything written by Ed Miller.
Here's a good one to buy.
Hunter Cichy does a good job making videos using Flopzilla.
Here's one example.
For $16/month you can subscribe to RedChipPoker.com. Both these guys do coaching videos here along with other pros. It's well worth the money.
If you're still a beginner, you can subscribe to James "Splitsuit" Sweeney's YouTube channel: The Poker Bank. He teaches a lot of good basics geared towards newer players.
I've got more resources too if you're interested beyond this stuff.

u/aeoncs · 3 pointsr/poker

https://www.amazon.com/Applications-No-Limit-Hold-Matthew-Janda/dp/1880685558

Pretty much the go to definitive source for what you’re asking.

Has a new book out as well, someone else may be able to comment on that one.

u/PepperJohn · 3 pointsr/chess

I gave you some advice for each book at each level. Of course all of these books can be switched around and if you want to read Dvoretsky (A very advanced author) at your level you're welcome to. Although a 1300 rating on lichess.org is still at a beginner level so I suggest you start from that section.

---

Beginner:

Play Winning Chess By: Yasser Seirawan

Logical Chess Move by Move By: Irving Chernev

How to Reasses Your Chess By: Jeremy Silman

---
Intermediate:

Practical Chess Exercises By: Ray cheng


The Art of Defense in Chess By: Andrew Soltis

Pawn Structure Chess By: Andrew Soltis

---

Master:



Fundamental Chess Endings By: Karsten-Müller and Frank Lamprecht.

Art of Attack in Chess By: Vladimir Vukovic

Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual By: Mark Dvoretsky

u/Nosher · 3 pointsr/chess

A book like Fundamental Chess Openings can help you navigate through the openings and find an opening system that you feel comfortable with. Once you are familiar with the basic themes and ideas of an opening your play will improve and you can check individual lines you may have trouble with an online database like this to see how strong players handle the position.

u/abechahrour · 3 pointsr/IAmA

If you're aiming to compete, try doing all of the following if you can:
 

1- Find a chess teacher. A rating above 2000 is preferred
 

2- Get Chess books that teach the basics of tactics, strategy, and endgame.
 

3- Make an account on Chesstempo.com and start solving tactics
 

4- Play many rapid games online. Chess.com allows you to play for free
 

5-For book recommendations : Endgame/
Middlegame
-As for opening, you really need a mentor to guide you in choosing the best opening for you. If you want to learn some opening, this is a good basic book

u/TheNothingNewReddit · 3 pointsr/chess

Fundamental Chess Openings?
https://www.amazon.com/FCO-Fundamental-Paul-Van-Sterren/dp/1906454132

Edit: Oops. Just noticed you said old. Probably not that so

u/Fossana · 3 pointsr/poker

The Grinder's Manual came out in April and I'm about halfway through it, but I can already say it's one of the top three best poker books. The author is an instructor on DeucesCracked. It's a bit pricey ($60), so hopefully you live in the U.S. and you can take advantage of the 30 day kindle unlimited trial, which lets you read any book for free on the kindle store. I've read Applications of No Limit Hold 'em, Easy Game, Kill Everyone, Harrington on Hold 'em, The Theory of Poker, Professional No Limit Hold 'em Volume I, etc., so I'd say I'm qualified to rate the book. Essentially it's a comprehensive overview of 6-max cash game strategy, and it doesn't skip any streets. It goes through thought process more rather than discussing vague theory ideas.

u/Internal_Objective · 3 pointsr/poker

https://www.amazon.com/Grinders-Manual-Complete-Course-Online-ebook/dp/B01GBFF890

I was able to read this with a kindle unlimited trial membership.

u/get-it-gone · 3 pointsr/Gifts

There are reasonably priced original Star Wars movie posters, or even good reprints available online. Another option is a nice framed piece of artwork from one of his favourite games. Vintage Disney cels are another option and can fit pretty much any budget depending on what you want. Other options include monogrammed stationary (if you want to go the fancy old school route) or a well appointed wall map of the world, there are some seriously nice ones online. You could look for a reasonably priced autograph by someone he likes, or an autographed/first edition comic or book that he likes. There are kits for making your own paper clock that are cheap and can even be a fun activity to do together.

Another cool idea to pair with something is a copy of a newspaper from your wedding day! Book or paper sculptures can be interesting and can be found across a huge span of cost, from cheap to exorbitant! You could buy tickets to a concert or event, maybe. Any kind of wall art/print would qualify, I'd imagine. As would gift certificates, which don't have to be impersonal. They can be for an activity you would both enjoy doing together (lessons, massages, etc) or something he would enjoy on his own, like an intro flying lesson or something like that! Depending on the cost in your area, obviously.

Book/comic/graphic novel box sets are also good. Something my parents have always done (and they've been married 34 years!) is reading a book together. They take turns reading out loud to each other leisurely or when the other is doing some mindless activity and read books together this way. You could buy a book or book series and give it to your husband to begin this practice yourselves! A subscription to a magazine is also paper. Another idea is to buy paper packets of seeds and some planting materials to start a little garden, or just some potted plants if you don't have green space! It's a really nice and rewarding thing to do alone or together and watching them grow is wonderful! Bonus points if it's something that will live a long time and be around for years to come (like some kind of tree if you have a yard).

Now I think I am officially exhausted of ideas. My first wedding anniversary is coming up in two months as well, so I've been doing some serious brainstorming! I hope any of these can help!

u/craywolf · 3 pointsr/IWantToLearn

I was going to come in here and say something like "you have to just start doing it," but you said it yourself, and better than I would have:

> So a basic message is do things that require me to be mechanical and take my time and make it a process, and then I'll be able to become more mechanically inclined.

Yep, that's about it. You have to be picky with where you start, though. Lots of things today have no user-serviceable parts (TVs, computers, phones) so those are useless for this. Other things have too many parts, or are too fussy or even dangerous to work with.

If you have the space, consider picking up an old-but-working gas powered lawnmower and a book on small engine repair.

Or if that seems like too big a first step, you can build a mechanical clock movement:

u/Spurnout · 3 pointsr/rpg

Got them off Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786962461/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01

Right now they're 32.97 each. Also, why do you think that it's going to be messed up? I guess a store had them early because a guy in my D&D game on Saturday brought in the PHB and it looked fantastic. I didn't look up all the differences but it seemed really nice. Also, I never had 3.5 so it's a good way for me to get them with all the updates.

u/moar_distractions · 3 pointsr/billiards

Get yourself a copy of The 99 Critical Shots in Pool.

u/seifd · 3 pointsr/dndnext

There's a similar thread here. If you've got the cash, you could try Grimtooth's Traps or The Book of Challenges.

u/misterwings · 3 pointsr/DnD

Get yourself this book and read it.

It is the only book that I have found that explores gender and sexuality in the d20 system. I would not use what is in the book in games but it is a great way to weave an undercurrent. Just the part of the book that deals with how each race deals with childbirth is worth it. Even in a game that is PG rated I have found that some of the information there is useful. Plus it has a list of STDs for that player who keeps interrupting the game with inappropriate advances on NPCs. We all have had "That Player" before.

u/E21F1F · 3 pointsr/rpg

Man softcover from approved retailers is really hard (no sarcasm), so many good games only come in hardcover. If you give me more information about his preferences I could help you narrow the list down.

https://www.amazon.com/Esoterrorists-RPG-2nd-Robin-Laws/dp/1908983523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494289945&sr=8-1&keywords=Esoterrorists

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Rose-AGE-Romantic-Fantasy/dp/1934547743/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1494289980&sr=8-2&keywords=Blue+rose+rpg

https://www.amazon.com/Microscope-Ben-Robbins/dp/0983277907/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_9?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0983277907&pd_rd_r=Z3RJ2JPXJQYDRYA06S2Y&pd_rd_w=hHGH4&pd_rd_wg=W5G5p&psc=1&refRID=Z3RJ2JPXJQYDRYA06S2Y

https://www.amazon.com/Bully-Pulpit-Games-BPG-005/dp/1934859397/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1934859397&pd_rd_r=JBAWXXB309ERX5KH0PXT&pd_rd_w=Eunmp&pd_rd_wg=OTd2y&psc=1&refRID=JBAWXXB309ERX5KH0PXT

https://www.amazon.com/Monster-of-the-Week-EHP0009/dp/1613170920/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1613170920&pd_rd_r=WFVTZB7V8R3S7S8F462W&pd_rd_w=HYjgo&pd_rd_wg=K0zZT&psc=1&refRID=WFVTZB7V8R3S7S8F462W

https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Hat-Productions-EHP0002-Accelerated/dp/1613170475/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1613170475&pd_rd_r=JBAWXXB309ERX5KH0PXT&pd_rd_w=Eunmp&pd_rd_wg=OTd2y&psc=1&refRID=JBAWXXB309ERX5KH0PXT

https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Shadows-Softcover-MPG007-Truman/dp/1987916166/ref=pd_sim_21_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1987916166&pd_rd_r=DKP8DTTM0N8MT2HDRFPZ&pd_rd_w=i0nmQ&pd_rd_wg=KPg28&psc=1&refRID=DKP8DTTM0N8MT2HDRFPZ

https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Ben-Robbins/dp/0983277915/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_13?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0983277915&pd_rd_r=A9ZZTCT4BD1KY3DA9ZYW&pd_rd_w=jRFtT&pd_rd_wg=biDau&psc=1&refRID=A9ZZTCT4BD1KY3DA9ZYW

https://www.amazon.com/Bully-Pulpit-Games-Durance-Playing/dp/0988390906/ref=pd_sim_14_26?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0988390906&pd_rd_r=T0HFDYG416QT8CZBM6C7&pd_rd_w=ljUZO&pd_rd_wg=hK410&psc=1&refRID=T0HFDYG416QT8CZBM6C7 (I think)

Character playbooks for pbta might be hard to print off.

https://www.amazon.com/Havenshield-Complete-RPG-Rulebook-Myers/dp/154258356X/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494291018&sr=1-7&keywords=Rpg (this seems like its worth a look)

u/JaskoGomad · 3 pointsr/rpg

The most important thing is for her to make a character that's interesting to her. Ask, what's the best way this character could possibly end up? What's the worst? If both answers would be interesting to see exactly how, then it's probably an interesting character to play with.

The second thing is to avoid stoic lone wolves with no families.

This book helps explain how doing the obvious thing is usually best: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Play-Unsafe-Improvisation-Change-Roleplay/dp/1434824594

u/chapel_truslow · 3 pointsr/rpg

i recently read a book called play unsafe about improving your GMing style and abilities, largely by practicing improvisation techniques. i found it enjoyable and with lots of usable ideas and advice. it's a quick read at 44 pages.

i got the reference to that book from the introduction of another book that i am reading called "Unframed, The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters." it in turn is from a selection of titles on game mastering that i picked up from the (still current) bundle of holding worldbuilder's toolkit which also seems pretty decent. there is a lot of material in those books that i am sure will give pretty much any gm some new ideas and help improve their game.

u/NvBIJ96t · 3 pointsr/math

Perhaps this or this.

u/Cherry_mice · 3 pointsr/origami

First thing first: If you're american, I would suggest joining Origami USA for the lending library. I've never used it (not american) but it seems useful.

If you're looking to get past the youtube videos and simple models, I would recommend some of the classics (though they might not be the newest). They are also more likely to be available. [Origami Omnibus] (http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_Omnibus.html) gives a good overview of the field though it was written before the Tessellators made it big. It should help you decide what kinds of origami you're interested in.
Origami from Angelfish to Zen has a nice overview of the history of origami.
[Origami design secrets] (http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_DesignSecrets.html) is a newer classic and covers a lot of the technical advances in the latter half of the century.

As for intermediate/advanced books, the best ones are "boutique" books from special publishers.
origami house does all the hard core japanese designs like Kamiya, Komatsu, and Nishikawa. They also publish the annual tanteidan convention book which is hands-down the best collection of diagrams each year. I almost always buy it (though sometimes I wait and buy several at once)

[Passion Origami] (http://www.passion-origami.com/marques.php) is the other major publisher and has the books by Roman Diaz, Quentin Trollip, and the VOG.

If you don't want to pay for shipping dead trees around, [Origami USA] (https://origamiusa.org/catalog/newest-downloads) has some diagrams for online purchase, I haven't looked at them all, but there are some good names there.

Modular origami is actually kinda diverse. Are you interested in pure geometrics (phizz, sonobe), clever decorative (Miyuki Kawamura), kusudama balls (glue!). Try the flickr group or browsing.

For Tessellations, it's Eric's book Origami Tessellations, and the Origami tessllations flickr group.

Other books I like (and can name off the top of my head right now):[Origami Dream world] (http://www.giladorigami.com/BO_Dreamworld.html) and origami dream world 2, Brilliant Origami is a classic for animals and has many clever models, Origami for the Connoisseur is a mix of good models from other sources, Fuse's Spirals a gorgeous art book. I have a soft spot for Origami in action .

Hopefully that's enough so that you can get a feel for what's out there right now. If you can tell us more about what you like, then we can give more specific suggestions.

Last comment: Go to an origami convention! That's really where the new and exciting stuff happens and you can meet all the designers.

u/KingOfThePark · 3 pointsr/origami

The best place to start is probably with Eric Gjerde's wonderful book, which details commonly used techniques, stages instructions for a sequence of 25 patterns in increasing complexity, and includes a bunch of photos of other works to get you thinking about even more projects.

Here's an even more basic place to get started: a pair of PDFs detailing his Spread Hexagons tiling.

u/yamamushi · 2 pointsr/papercraft

Wow, I wasn't even aware of the /po/ board, thanks!

It looks like the clock came from this book, https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Working-Paper-Clock/dp/0060910666 , but there's plenty of other good stuff available on that thread to work on :-)

Edit: I take it back, the clock came from http://guru2.karakasa.com/pendulum_clock/pcp_e.html , but the design is very similar to the book

u/SirElkarOwhey · 2 pointsr/OneY

The traditional gift for the first anniversary was paper, and the new one is clocks.

So, here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Working-Paper-Clock/dp/0060910666

Do it together, draw a heart on it, write the date in the heart.

u/Exit_Only · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Don't be afraid to "man up", so to speak. There are plenty of things that "boys" should learn that are quite lost on a bunch of kids these days.

http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0061243582/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319658461&sr=1-5

Depending on your location, and resources, not everything in this book will apply to you (like building a tree house for instance). But this book and others like it can teach some of those things that are great for life. Tying knots for instance. Heck, you might learn a thing or two yourself.

Good luck, and most importantly, have fun!

u/I_Tow_My_Own_Line · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061243582

The Dangerous Book for Boys

I bought it as a 'right of passage for dummies guidebook for imparting masculinity on your son through awesome childhood memories' but it has a lot of the stuff in it that I feel every man should know.

I wish my Dad had something like this when I was young.

u/DoHimJob · 2 pointsr/MLS

Have you read The Numbers Game, and if so, what did you think?

Do you have any other recommendations for soccer statistics reading?

u/sinabac · 2 pointsr/MLS

I'm working my way through "The Numbers Game". It looks at soccer analytically and delves into different tactics, managers and clubs. Also challenges a lot of conventional wisdom the same way Moneyball did for baseball. Really helped me get an understanding of what to look for and get a better appreciation for what's really going on during the game

http://www.amazon.com/The-Numbers-Game-Everything-Soccer/dp/0143124560

u/DuguLinghu · 2 pointsr/DnD

2E books are treasures--you are smart to hold on to them.

For the 3E and 4E stuff you are planning on getting rid of, best thing is to ask if there is a kid in your extended family who might want the collection.

You could check to see if amazon offers trade-in value for them. Like here https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-3-5-Players-Handbook/dp/0786962461/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483034452&sr=1-1&keywords=Player%27s+handbook+3.5

You see they are offering $13 on an Amazon gift card. It is easy, you just put them in a box and send them in in one large trade-in batch. The book will find its way to someone who needs it eventually, because it still has value.

Many don't offer trade-in, like the 3.0 core rules, but that's because the used market is selling them for a couple of bucks. Nothing to do about that, WOTC's plan was to obsolete some books to resell core line, and they did a good job. There are simply too many in the market for the demand, and it isn't going to pick up for those editions. Probably best to just throw them out--it's sad, but you will probably spend more of your time and gas trying to get them somewhere than they will ever be worth. Content yourself with knowing that there are many, many more copies of them out there than will ever be used.

I personally would go wih Amazon trade-in over eBay selling because it is hassle free, but it all depends on how much you value your time. I would also figure most libraries would determine that since there is a newer edition out, and this is outside their core line anyway, they wouldn't be likely to keep it. Amazon trade-in is just a hassle free way of getting it out into the marketplace, increasing supply for those who want them.

But certainly keep your 2E stuff, unless passing it on to someone you know will love it. It connects and is compatible with 20 years of AD&D material across 10 campaign settings, and is the last of the Gygax style old-school RPGs, so it is something that can never be replaced by the new stuff.

u/framk · 2 pointsr/billiards

Here's the book if anybody is interested in buying it or checking out the shots in question. They appear on pages 76 and 77 and you can view them by clicking on the image of the book on the left.

As for shot 33, It's easy if you can gauge whether or not the ball is deep enough in the pocket. Personally, I wouldn't shoot what's portrayed in the diagram. It just feels like the ball would pop off the rail. The condition of the rails might play a role, too, but I'm pretty inexperienced so hopefully someone can give me some insight, too.

Shot 34 on the other hand! It never occurred to me to rely on a slight masse to make this shot. I'm guessing low left is more effective in this situation than high or just regular left.

u/mattcolville · 2 pointsr/DnD

You want Grimtooths traps.

http://www.amazon.com/Grimtooths-Traps-Game-Masters-Role-Playing-Systems/dp/0940244756

Also
http://www.amazon.com/Grimtooths-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/1588461394

You'll have to do a little work to make them 4e compatable, but it shouldn't be hard. Most of these traps are more ingenious devices rather that straight up damage.

Also there was a great module for 2e called Axe of the Dwarvish Lords that had a dwarven city taken over by goblins. They trapped the whole place so a party of high level dudes are challenged by a bunch of gobs. It's an amazing map, huge underground fortress. But it's more guerrilla warfare than ingenious mechanisms.

u/johnvak01 · 2 pointsr/rpg

My typical List of OSR style Fantasy games

----------------

Retro Clones

  • Swords and Wizardry(ODnD) - almost a direct rehash of the very first edition of DnD

  • The Black Hack (ODnD) A very modern hack of ODnD. Fast and streamlined.

  • Labyrinth Lord (BX DnD) - Almost a direct rehashing of the old BX dnd system. There's a separate Advanced Edition Companion which makes it more like ADnD.

  • Lamentations of the Flame Princess(BX DnD) - this is the current hot stuff. Dark and Mature with a great ruleset. Lots of the best supplements coming out are based on this system. Veins of the Earth was built with this system in mind.

  • Basic Fantasy RPG (BX DnD?) BX dnd with race separated from class.

    All of these have complete free versions on their websites(usually minus art)

  • I would also recommend the Rules Cyclopedia as one of the most complete versions of dnd ever created. It's now available as print on demand!

    New Stuff

  • Dungeon World (Great for 1 shots and short campaigns. I'd also recommend the supplements Freebooters on the Frontier and the Perilous Wilds)

  • World of dungeons (1 page OSR-like Dungeon World hack)

  • Maze Rats (Small Booklet, Even if you don't play it, get it for it's amazingly useful tables.)

  • Shadow of the Demon Lord (Starts with a basic Character and then builds in complexity over time. My favorite class system.)

  • Dungeon Crawl Classics (Beautifully done. Every class feels really unique.)

  • Godbound (High powered OSR style game by the same guy who made Stars Without Number)

  • Stars without Number (Possibly Best Sci-fi RPG you can get right now)

  • Index Card RPG (What it says on the Tin)

    ------------

    One of these don't stand out to you then i'd recommend Microscope. It's a timeline building RPG that makes worlds and histories. Lord of the rings was done with this one, you'd produce something like the silmirallion. If you don't know what to play, play this and get some inspiration going. once you have a better Idea of the style of game you want come back and we can give you a more focused RPG suggestion.

    Someone also suggested Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine. If the idea of playing in a Ghibli film excites you, this is the way to go.

    Someone suggested you might be looking for Video games. This is the wrong place for that but I'd recommend Divinity Original Sin , Pillars of Eternity, The Original Fallout, Planescape: tides of Numenera, Supergiant Games products (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre), Dark Souls, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Darkest Dungeon.
u/curious_electric · 2 pointsr/rpg

Clearly you are looking for Graham Walmsley's Play Unsafe.

You can get it on Amazon (regular book or kindle) or Lulu or even in PDF form from the indie RPGs un-store.

I have used the techniques therein to improv whole games outta basically nothing. Very good resource.

u/DeskHammer · 2 pointsr/DnD

Create hooks not plots, improv and do what's obvious to you.

Remember you're playing to see what happens. If you're planning out every detail, you're writing a book.

I can't recommend this book enough.
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Unsafe-Improvisation-Change-Roleplay/dp/1434824594

Learning to gm like this will bring you the most interesting and rememberable play you've ever experienced. Just remember that it's a skill and you will get better with time.

u/ASnugglyBear · 2 pointsr/rpg
u/Gandave · 2 pointsr/TheGlassCannonPodcast

My first comment was more about "rants" in the show, but I also wanted to answer some of your other points.

First of all, on having to improvise or "help, my party killed the encounter I prepped for two hours":

I would be lying if I said, that I was never miffed when my players destroyed an encounter too quickly, or found a solution that invalidated what I had prepared. However, to be honest, it bothers me less and less. There are two reasons: One, I do not prepare as much, or as strictly, as I used to, because you simply cannot prepare how things play out at the table, and two, I got more relaxed when improvising, and that improved my improvising skills.

What I learned in my time as a GM, is that you should never prepare for a certain outcome or development of an encounter. As a GM I only provide a problem, and while I think about possible solutions, I let my players choose their approach. That simple frame of mind is often enough to change my attitude from sad/angry, because I don't get to show my planned encounter, to ecstatic that my players found a solution I did not anticipate. And by communicating this to my players (being exited and/or complimenting them on their solution), I make them feel better about themselves and maybe that will please them enough to overlook my so-so approach at improvising. ;)

I understand that improvisation can be a very daunting task, especially to newer GMs, but that problem can't be solved by being properly/better prepared (per definition improvising is what you do, when you've got nothing prepared for the situation). Instead you can only get better by practicing. And by being thrown into the cold water.

When I was in high school I was rather shy and conscious about speaking in front of people. Nowadays I have no problems with improvising a lecture provided I know what I'm talking about. That change did not happen over night. It happened because I was repeatedly forced to give presentations in front of ever bigger audiences.

I hated it. I had stage fright, I was shaking and sometimes felt downright sick. But that was what I needed to experience in order to get better. The important thing was not getting better at making presentations or taking classes on rhetoric. No, I just needed to get used to the feeling of standing in front of people to be able to relax. As soon as you're relaxed, your brain starts working again. And that, to me, is the essence of improvising: Pushing aside the anxiousness, relaxing and then just talking/reacting to what your players give you.

So my tip would be to ignore the inner voice that says that you can't do it, or that compares you to someone like Skid, who is really great at improvising, and to remember, that, hey, you're here with friends and to have fun, not to win the world championship of improvisation. ;)

Another thing, I learned from the book "Playing Unsafe" is that when people try to improvise "well", that will often result in "bad" scenes ("The harder you try, the more you fail."). If, instead they focus on making an average scene, the scenes tend to become great ("When you try to be average, that's when you're good.").


Secondly, the importance of combats:

I agree that combats can be very fun and enjoyable, but sometimes get a bad wrap. I believe this is due to either GMs having too many combats in a row or not varied enough combats.

Also, there is the issue that the narrative can easily be lost when initiative is rolled and the players and GM enter "tactical mode". I think that a good GM can counter that quite easily, but I know that it can be hard, as a player, especially if your party is in a terrible situation.

The lack of variance of combats is partly on the GM, if they do not offer the party any reason or possibility to change tactics, and combat after combat plays out exactly the same. And partly it is on the designers of adventure modules, who sometimes fill dungeons with a lot of combat without any significance or uniqueness, that only drain the party's resources.

For example take a look at the recent encounter on the stone bridge. The combat described in the module was more or less boring and has no real significance to the story (unless Troy thinks of something). While the designers added the tactic of bull rushing PCs off the bridge, they did not even give the giants the necessary feat. As such it was unlikely to play a large part in the combat and became or more or less a standard battle against two large, strong melee creatures.

I once ran an encounter from a module which was designed similarly, but much better. The PCs are on a bridge full of commoners, trying to enter a city, when suddenly the sky darkens and a squad of riders on flying dragon-winged rams descend and begin attacking indiscriminately. Part of their tactic was also to push PCs off the bridge using their mounts (who had improved bull rush).

These "Doomguides" could, on their mounts, position themselves more or less anywhere on or near the bridge which allowed them to actually bull rush every turn, if they wanted to. But the bull rush was only part of their tactic, they also had the Spirited Charge and Ride-By-Attack feat and Smite Good, so they were capable, yet elusive enemies due to their flying mounts.

On top of that, the bridge was filled with commoners, who panicked and scrambled to reach the city's gate, which created difficult terrain and dealt minor non-lethal damage on anyone not moving with the crowd, so casters had to make concentration checks. Finally, the city's gates were about to be closed, because the guards wanted to protect the city without regard for the people. The PCs could interact with the crowd, or the guards, or disregard all of it and concentrate on the Doomguides.

Now compare that to the stone giants on the bridge who were forced to move up, then around the party to have a chance to bull rush, all while taking attacks of opportunity. And that was the main draw of the combat. The only thing that kept that combat from being boring was the Xorn robe that one giant possessed and the fact that Troy made two encounters in parallel (which was a great idea, by the way!).

Of course, the encounter described above is an extreme example and it was major set piece of the module (though the module also had three(!) more encounters of similar extent), while the stone giants on the bridge are one among many encounters, but it goes to show, what is possible in Pathfinder if you are willing to invest a little time into design.


Thirdly, "encounter killers":

I'll try to keep this point short, but first I have to bluntly ask: What do you expect of your players in combat encounters? (The following is firmly tongue-in-cheek, by the way, so take it with a big grain of salt ;P)

In this Cannon Fodder, you and Troy talk about some spells and effects shutting down encounters hard and "killing" it. You mention Charm Monster, Sleep and Web (which I, personally, find is an odd example for "encounter killers"). In earlier Cannon Fodders (e.g. #44) Troy mentions that he dislikes Grease and Web and similar spells. Also, you talk about how massive damage can take away from the fun (again, #44). That leaves me with the question: Do you allow your players any effective strategy at all?

If I'm not "allowed" to shut down my enemies with save-or-suck effects (e.g. Charm Monster, Sleep), cannot use battlefield control (e.g. Grease, Web) and "should" not do massive damage, what else is left? Should I just twiddle my thumbs and cast healing spells? :P

OK, now somewhat back to a more serious discussion - I know, of course, that a lot of this is just ranting on the players when they got the better of you, not because you really want your players to stop using these strategies. It's only when a player overuses a certain strategy, that it becomes annoying (though non-casters, like Nestor, do not necessarily have alternative strategies as readily available to them).

But you do get my point, right? While playing chess, you wouldn't tell your opponent that the queen is too strong, and that using it would take away from the fun of the game, would you? No, because the queen is part of the game. The same goes for save-or-suck effects, battlefield control and characters who deal a lot of damage in Pathfinder.

In a more recent Cannon Fodder (#65, #66? Somewhere along these lines), Troy mentions that, to him, a good combat in Pathfinder would last about 12 to 15 (!) rounds. I can't think of a more boring thing to do in Pathfinder (no, seriously!). What is supposed to be happening in these dozen rounds? If the PCs are supposed to be hit and get hit every round, they simply cannot last that long, unless either their HP are seriously inflated or their damage is pitiful, and if both sides keep missing, nothing is happening - how is that any fun?!

Personally, I like these controlling spells and shutdown effects, and I like talking about their advantages and disadvantages, how to use them effectively and how to counter them. So if anyone is interested in an actual debate - aside from my ranting above - on certain "encounter killers", like Charm Monster, I'm happy to oblige.

Wow, that got even longer than I thought. To anyone who stuck with this comment until here, thank you very much and I'm interested to hear, what you think.

Have a nice day, everyone and happy gaming!

u/EdmundH · 2 pointsr/mathpics

Interesting, I have not heard it called that, and don't seem to be able to find other references. I do know that Conway calls the structure Hexasticks (or hexastakes if the pencils are sharpened, which changes the symmetry group). It is discussed for example in The Symmetry of Things. My understanding is that the design comes from George Hart, though I do not think he claims to have invented it.

u/antihero · 2 pointsr/wikipedia
u/sstadnicki · 2 pointsr/mathematics

One of my favorite recent mathematics books - and one that offers a nice continuum between 'pure' mathematics and a specific application of it, as well as a nice spread of mathematical sophistication from pop math to some research-level depth, is The Symmetries Of Things by John Conway, Heidi Burgiel and Chaim Goodman-Strauss. It's an exploration of 'discrete' symmetries of the plane and of space - and of the tilings, polyhedra, etc. that they give rise to - as well as an introduction to some aspects of Coxeter groups and a (slightly out-of-place) chapter on the number of finite groups of various orders. I can highly recommend all of Conway's writing, but this is perhaps the finest instance available right now.

u/tylerneylon · 2 pointsr/math

That reminds me of a book that could be perfect for a course like this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Symmetries-Things-John-Conway/dp/1568812205/

It discusses the idea of symmetry in great mathematical depth, but in a way that is much less formal and pedantic than a traditional math text. For me, there is something beautiful in the extraordinary variety available in the forms of symmetry explored in this book.

u/EtDM · 2 pointsr/billiards

I second this, especially if you find you're rushing your later shots.

Stand up, chalk up, and take a trip around the table. Look at the way everything's laid out, and give yourself a chance to relax before you shoot. Unless you're taking a really long time between each shot, nobody should give you any grief.

If you're looking for some great reads about this, check out Zen in the Art of Archery and The Inner Game of Tennis. I've also heard good things about the Pleasures of Small Motions, but I've yet to read it myself.

u/unoriginalsin · 2 pointsr/seduction

Well, I did all of that first. Then I read Bob Fancher's The Pleasures of Small Motions. I won't say it was like a light went off in my head, because there's just so much in that book about the mental game, but faking it until you make it is a great way to get past some of the mental blocks we set up for ourselves. Such as you convincing yourself that you aren't as good as you think you are. Truth is, if you're paying attention to your fundamentals and practicing, you're probably much better than you think you are. Trust your gut more, and just roll with it.

u/maksa · 2 pointsr/billiards

https://www.amazon.com/Pleasures-Small-Motions-Mastering-Billiards/dp/1585745391

Recommended to me by a guy who kicked my ass twice, both times it was 12:1.

u/darkrock · 2 pointsr/poker

also, Harrington on Holdem is a great teacher

u/dumbschmuck · 2 pointsr/poker

Dan Harrington's "Harrington on Hold'em" Vol 1 & 2. Don't bother with Vol 3.
These are written about multi-table tournaments, with Vol 1 about the early stages, and Vol 2 about endgame (final table). Volume 2 is also very helpful for sit-n-go's, which are essentially final tables.
Volume 3 is a waste because it's basically a bunch of tests instead of new info. I think the first 2 were so successful that he knew he could make a good buck on anything new with the same title.
I hesitate to even spread the word more about these books because they are so good, and who needs better competition?
http://www.amazon.com/Harrington-Expert-Strategy-Limit-Tournaments/dp/1880685337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375465357&sr=8-1&keywords=dan+harrington+tournament

u/lol_donkaments · 2 pointsr/poker

This is partially going to be a novel about how I got into poker because of a Royal Caribbean cruise, be warned. :) I was on the Freedom of the Seas during the summer of 2010, and spent a ton of time at the table.

My family had booked a cruise on the FotS during the summer of 2010, when I was 18, so there wasn't too much to do on the boat (can't drink, can't/would feel weird going to "teen" areas). When looking at what the boat had to offer, though, I saw there was a poker table... and I realized I would have something to do besides workout/eat great food/sit in the sun. I had played competitive M:tG for a few years then, and was looking to get into a game that was more socially acceptable (wouldn't have to hide from friends and females). I also knew that several pro M:tG players e.g. David Williams, Jon Finkle, and other lesser-knowns played poker. With nothing more to do on the boat, and coming off the high of winning a 4-person donkament at my friend's house the week before, I decided to dive into the realm of poker. I hadn't read any poker literature at the time besides "only play top 10 hands lolz" articles on poker-listings and other similar sites, but I can still remember a bit of the play that went down.

Anyway, after realizing how "high-stakes" the games were on the boat - 1/2 during the day, 2/5 at night - I quickly realized that I would be out of my element playing in the cash games. I was fine railing though... 500 dollars was equivalent to 10k in my mind. During the day, the table was mostly empty unless you organized a game with the people sitting around the night before. At night though, starting after 9 when the second dinner shift was getting through, the 2/5 game was almost always full. Competition was super, super, super soft. There was a ~50 year-old business man on the cruise with family who I got to know fairly well after sitting at the table so often, and he look at his hole-cards during the hands as I sat there. Details on explicit hands are fuzzy for the most part, but he was playing the standard "2+2 approved" 14/12 style and crushing pretty thoroughly. I remember one hand, where he open raised, went to the flop heads-up, completely missed, but still bet and made the other guy fold. My first exposure to c-betting. Ah, nostalgia. Anyway, real content...

On FotS, they had an electric table. No dealer, no chips. Each player had a touchscreen embedded in the table, with a ~30 inch screen in the middle of the table for the board, pot size, etc. I didn't like it then, and still don't now. It felt too "online-y" to me. Don't get me wrong, I love and most-often prefer online poker, but if it's gonna be live I'd like it to have chips at least. Most people at the table felt the same way. The business man I mentioned earlier said that he had been on one Royal Caribbean cruise per-year with his family over the past 10 years, and that he has never seen an electric table besides on FotS. I'm not sure how standard the electric table is on RC these days, but it's good to know that not every boat has one. If you're on one of the newer boats, though, I'd say chances are higher. Here's the table they had on FotS: http://www.pokertek.com/

As far as gameplay goes, the game was SUPER soft. There were probably 20 tops "regulars" at the table each night, some more regular than others, but only 3 or 4 of them had any idea what they were doing. Definitely softer than an average casino 2/5 game. I didn't think much of it then, but people were shoving with nothing on flops, playing 60% of their hands, and just generally being huge fish. Lots of middle-aged Asian guys who spewed off money, and a few rich-looking old white guys who would sit down with $500 and mention how they lose every night, but "it's been a great learning experience" because they'd never played poker before. If I had been in the game with my current poker knowledge, I would have been drooling. There was a bald Finnish guy at the table every night who would crush - always leaving with over 1.5k. He paid for his entire family's cruise at the table, which I thought was amazing at the time. Oh, and almost everyone buys in short - only a few guys ever bought in for a full 100bbs. The typical buy-in was around 200.

What kind of poker are you most familiar with? If you're used to playing 100bb deep 1/2, you won't feel out of your element. If bringing a 2.5k bankroll for 2/5 seems too steep, just short-stack it and keep all your commitment decisions on the flop. You really can't go wrong playing 14/12, 90% c-bet, take everyone to value-town on later streets poker. For quick tips, if you haven't read this book before, read it. It's basically the rock that every live 1/2 strategy-profile is built upon: http://www.amazon.com/Professional-No-Limit-Hold-em-I/dp/188068540X Also, just read a ton of hands on the Live Low-Stakes No Limit section of 2+2. If you play tight and don't get out of line, you should win. The rake is absolutely killer though - 10%, no cap, IIRC - so watch out.

That's all I can recall for now. If you have any more questions feel free to ask! GL and HF on your cruise.

P.S. - I forgot... I only mentioned cash games because they're what I play now, but there are tournaments on the boat as well. Not very many, though. Once a day they ran a 9-handed sit'n'go where the winner would qualify for a championship sit'n'go at the end of the cruise to compete for all the prize money. Besides a $50 sit'n'go the night that you get on the boat, I think those are the only tournaments they spread.

u/chopthis · 2 pointsr/poker

I would recommend these books:

u/simism66 · 2 pointsr/askphilosophy

There are no axioms of poker in the sense in which there are axioms of a formal axiomatic system. Given your last comment, I took you to be speaking about such a system, and so, in the relevant sense of "axiom," there are no axioms of poker.

A formal axiomatic system consists in a set of axioms and a deductive system by which things can be proven, given that set of axioms. So, for instance, Peano Arithmetic consists in a set of axioms, formalized in the first-order language of arithmetic, and the deductive system of first-order predicate logic with identity. Mathematical theory can be formalized in this way. Poker theory cannot be, at least not at the moment.

If there is anything that could be called a "poker axiom" it's "Don't make a play that's negative EV." To make the play that has the greatest EV just is what it is to make the correct poker play. But there is no axiomatic theory that enables one to determine, for any situation and any play, the EV of that play in that situation. In the past few decades, poker theory has come a very long way (here's an example of a book that presents much of the contemporary theory), but the fact of the matter is that the game isn't solved yet. As such, there is no way in which poker theory could be presented as a formal axiomatic system.

(Also, I'd say that "Two pair beats one pair" is not an axiom of poker playing, but a fact that defines what the game is. Something like "Don't fold a low straight" assumes knowledge of what the game is (that a higher straight beats a lower straight), and is advice for playing.)

u/Kaluki · 2 pointsr/chess

How to Reasses your Chess by Silman is essentially what you're looking for. It goes over the process of finding imbalances in a position and creating a plan around these imbalances. Examples of typical imbalances would be:

  1. More or less space
  2. Bishop vs Knights
  3. Pawn Structure
  4. Material difference
  5. Quality of piece placement
  6. King Safety
  7. Initiative

    My suggestion would be to go over games by masters in the openings you play. Look for imbalances and take note of how the master uses them to create plans. I would also suggest not changing openings much if at all since plans can differ drastically based on the opening and you don't want to lose any experience you've accrued.
u/JeffB1517 · 2 pointsr/chess

Arguably what teaches you what makes a move good or bad at 1300 leve are the tactics puzzles and endgames. The standard for this type of learning is: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1890085138/ and its the standard for good reason. If you don't want a course but more a good book of chess aphorisms and rules of thumb: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936490323 and somewhat harder: https://www.amazon.com/Wisest-Things-About-Chess-Batsford/dp/1906388008. A good book on theory that will have you learn theory as it develops and is fun to read if you like great games is: https://smile.amazon.com/Masters-Chessboard-Richard-Reti-ebook/dp/B006ZQISDY/





u/Pawnbrake · 2 pointsr/chess

Many mistakes in this game from both sides. White's first mistake is his third move, 3 g3. Black should have countered with e5! gaining the initiative and an opening advantage.

However, if you prefer a more strategical analysis, black was making threats and white was responding. White had the wrong mindset, as he was not combative enough. IM Silman in his instructive book describes this as pushing your agenda. If you don't push a plan onto the board, you will lose, because you are not making winning attempts.

If you want more detailed analysis, please upload your own first. Then, the community can help you by pointing out what's right and wrong in your thought processes.

u/Skuto · 2 pointsr/chess

On a related note, does anyone know what's up with the base book and Amazon Kindle? I find references that it's available on Kindle, but it's not on the store: How to Reassess Your Chess

The availability of chess books on Kindle is weird. This one for black is.

but this one for white isn't.

u/4m4z1ng · 2 pointsr/chess

My point is that if he's truly trying to grasp the basics, the names of all these openings shouldn't matter. Just play basic, solid chess. Follow the opening principles.

Also, you might check out Silman's book [How to Reassess Your Chess] (http://www.amazon.com/How-Reassess-Your-Chess-Fourth/dp/1890085138)
as it may be helpful.

Edit: Oh yeah, that's right. That is the Scandinavian. Thanks.

u/candidate_master · 2 pointsr/chess

/r/chessbooks !

> prefer working on books and with a chessboard to learn opening.

u/okieman888 · 2 pointsr/chessbeginners

I think Fundamental Chess Openings is exactly what you are looking for. It covers all openings though, but I think it could still be useful in case you switch to something other than 1.e4. It gives good explanations of main opening lines and delves pretty deep, but not super in depth. Most books on specific openings go into exhaustive details and at 1200 that just isn’t very useful.

u/jez2718 · 2 pointsr/chess

Depending on your level FCO is a very good resource.

u/P8II · 2 pointsr/chess

I really liked Paul van der Sterren book on openings. It explains ideas, rather than options.

u/TribalDancer · 2 pointsr/boardgames

Combine with blank cards, your own blank folding game board, some neutral pawns, and/or a set with pawns, tokens, timers, and more, and you're set!

Need inspiration? Do a Little. Reading.

u/codyisadinosaur · 2 pointsr/tabletopgamedesign

As far as books go, I highly recommend the "Kobold Guide to Board Game Design:"

https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

It has a bunch of articles from board game designing veterans and will give you some great tips on everything from how to get started, to how to polish up your prototype for publishers.

As for making a board game from an existing franchise... that's something where the owner of the IP reaches out to you, not the other way around. They'll typically be looking for industry veterans who have had several best-selling games over the course of several years. So unfortunately for 99.99% of us, designing a product for a franchise like Warcraft or Game of Thrones will never be anything more than a dream.

u/EdgeOfDreams · 2 pointsr/tabletopgamedesign

It's possible to hire people to do it - there are companies that specialize in finding people to do focus-group testing of various products - but that's a bit expensive.

This book on board game design has a couple chapters on playtesting that would be relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

u/RaunchySlappy · 2 pointsr/boardgames

Thanks for the great question! I'll answer the way my mother always answer my long emails...

  • Background? My background is in actually more on the visual creative side rather than the game design side! I graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a degree in Illustration. My thesis project was to create and illustrate an entire game on my own ("Landfall" mentioned in a couple other places in this thread). Of course I ended up focusing on (and enjoying more) designing the gameplay and player experience aspects of the game.
  • Motivation? I really just want to design games and have people play them! If I'm lucky I'll break even on this project, haha. I've tried to keep everything as minimal and efficient as possible, to get the game to the people is my only real intent. It is incredibly satisfying when demoing the game to watch people truly enjoying something I've poured my blood, sweat, and tears into.
  • What resources did you seek/find? I am lucky enough to have a fantastic day job to afford to keep the lights on (and the 3D printer running), and have done lots, and lots, and lots, and loooots of research. The thing they don't tell you is that when you want to get your game published through KS, its like getting a third whole new job (in addition to my day job and my board game design job). It is so in depth you can practically major in crowdfunding. I read a ton of stuff from Jamey Stegmaier, have been reading this book andthis book, and have done lots and lots of trial and error.
  • Which resources were most helpful to you? Probably the 3D printer was one of my best investments as a tabletop game designer. It reaaaaally helps immerse the player (and myself) in the game I am creating if I can basically instantly create whatever components I want. (I purchased this affordable 3D printer and have had great success with it)
  • What approach worked for you personally, and how is it different from other boardgame designers? This is a really good question. Board game designing isn't typically something that becomes someone's full time job. Each person who has made the leap usually starts somewhere vastly different from game designing, and I believe that gives each designer a very unique perspective to their games and the way they go about creating them. For me, those things are mostly visually creative-related. At work I do illustration, graphic design, photography, videography, video editing etc etc. So making a decent looking prototype is something that I was able to do (mostly) on my own, and similarly making a nice game trailer and digital ads was relatively easy for me. While I had the visual components down, I differ from other designers who have different characteristics that they bring into play like business experience, industry contacts, an in depth understanding of Kickstarter (I am pretty familiar with KS, have backed a few things, but I am by no means a superbacker myself).
  • The biggest challenge you are proud to have overcome? Even though my campaign isn't at its goal just yet, I am proud at the amount of people I have been able to spark some interest and connection with through my game when starting basically from scratch. They say to have a successful campaign you need to have at least 10,000 emails when you launch, I had about 150 (I lucked out when my game trailer ended up blowing up on Reddit about a week before launch). It was very hot in that pigeon suit I wore for 4 days straight at PAX East promoting Crumbs, and it was exhausting taking a 5 day trip to NYC and demoing the game every day, but it was so worth it. This is my first game, and for someone starting with a near zero fanbase, I am proud my game has been able to touch this many people to begin with.
u/Danwarr · 2 pointsr/BoardgameDesign

Ok, but why should somebody work with you if you've barely done any work on your own idea? Like /u/Bastiaan-Squared mentioned, most people are more excited to work on their own ideas, which they are constantly prototyping, refining, reworking etc, than to help you sit down and decide what mechanisms might work well in whatever setting you think is cool. You're better off spending your own time hammering out some potential mechanisms you might find interesting then approaching somebody and refining what you've done.


Here are a couple books that might help you out:

u/22VPIP20PFR113BET · 2 pointsr/poker

I post a variant on this comment whenever this question gets asked. Still think the Grinders Manual is an amazing place to start even though I'm thinking some of the 3b strategy is a little dated (iirc)

free

I wrote this guide with my coach. It's a decent place to start, though it is quite long and will take you some time to go through it. I think for beginners the UTG range might be slightly loose as ATo could be better as a fold

http://playonlinepoker.ie/how-to-play-poker-microstakes

Free with KU trial, otherwise 10 bucks

You can download Kindle Unlimited free trial and borrow "The Grinder's Manual", which ends up being free as long as you cancel trial, or else its about 10 bucks a month

heres a link (not affiliate) https://www.amazon.com/Grinders-Manual-Complete-Course-Online-ebook/dp/B01GBFF890

More expensive ($10-$100) Training sites

If you have money to spare then one of the best training sites is upswingpoker.com for beginners as it walks you through a progression from starting hands to post-flop.

If you can't afford Upswing then try Run It Once essential and post in r/poker asking which videos to start with, people are generally pretty helpful

u/legopuffer · 1 pointr/origami

Michael Lafosse books are good, like Origami Art and Advanced Origami
http://www.origamido.com/

I like Eric Gjerdes diagrams in here
http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Tessellations-Awe-Inspiring-Geometric-Designs/dp/1568814518

Also John Montrol has lots of animal books

u/dilznoofus · 1 pointr/origami

Also, the book is available via Amazon, and through other online booksellers, as well as local bookstores. :)

u/cubascastrodistrict · 1 pointr/origami

Yes! In Origami Tesselations by Eric Gjerde. This book is the best entrance point into origami tesselations. I would warn you though, this model was way harder than I expected, so you probably want to start with some simpler tesselations first.

u/zofcz · 1 pointr/origami

My favorite tessellations (including your one) comes from Eric Gjerde (Sarah Adams did many of those in her channel). Get his book and visit his website and flickr.

Start with this one. It is not a tessellation by mean, but it is fun model and good for practicing precise folds and some skills.

This one is interesting model and it will give you an idea how important is to fold a grid (basically how to "prefold" a paper before making creases).

And finally - this one followed by [multi-level version] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=474PmBXekK8) is your holy grail. If you stick with this one and find yourself enjoying hours spend with this bad boy you'll know that you're hooked on tessellations (here is my humble 5-hour contribution). Then just go through the book and videos and diagrams.

I just find it so relaxing. Just turning on some music, and for hours creating something complex and symmetrical. Have a great time!

u/Wheat_For_Ore · 1 pointr/billiards

Read this book. It's honestly the best pool book I've ever read. I have applied the lessons learned in this book to other sports as well.

u/andrefivethousand · 1 pointr/billiards

What about Pleasure of Small Motions? Book specifically on the mental game of pool.

u/doublestop · 1 pointr/billiards

I'm pretty fond of The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. It goes into some basics and a ton of shot situations with explanation. It's a great resource, imo, for nearly all levels of play.

For the mental game, I'm a huge fan of Pleasures of Small Motions. It's a deep dive into the mental game and talks about concentration vs focus and helps the reader with some mental exercises. Jury is out in this sub whether it's all that valuable, though I have found it to be a great help to my game. IMO, even at an early stage this book could be useful. Frustration can be a big problem for a beginner trying to get comfortable with the game and having some insight to the mental side can be a benefit.

Welcome to pool! I hope you enjoy playing and fall in love with it like we all have. :)

u/prettyfuckingimmoral · 1 pointr/Guitar

If you play pool, you'll know the sensation you get when you KNOW you won't miss a shot you're attempting. What's happened is that your brain has all the information that it needs and has fed it to your subconscious, which is what actually controls your muscles, and that feeds back and tells you you're ready to take the shot.

The key is your subconscious. This is what controls your muscles, not the part of your mind that "speaks" to you. Giving it all the information and letting it do its thing without getting in its way (i.e. thinking with your conscious mind) is what you need to do to perform. Screwing up is often (as long as you've practiced enough to commit the notes and rhythm to memory) just your conscious mind engaging when you should be letting your subconscious do the work. In sports this is called "being in two minds". The act of going consciously blank and letting your subconscious do all the work is most commonly called being "in the zone." It sounds like voodoo but it's actually possible to train yourself to slip into the zone, and as long as you go with it and don't engage your conscious mind you can stay in it. I recommend the book "The Pleasures of Small Motions" for a billiards context. There's probably something similar for musicians but I'm not aware of it.

u/sniggihs · 1 pointr/billiards

I would highly recommend reading the book Pleasures of Small Motions. This is an amazing book that teaches you how to find your true skill level and get past any mental barriers. Youll improve quickly! Keep playing and have fun doing it!

u/Wufei74 · 1 pointr/starcraft

If you ever seriously get into it and play online/offline, I heavily suggest Dan Harrington's books.

https://www.amazon.com/Harrington-Expert-Strategy-Limit-Tournaments/dp/1880685337

u/midas22 · 1 pointr/survivor

Not really more than going to your local casino and play live and have a good time with it now and then and see how it feels. Reading a poker book doesn't hurt in the beginning if you're into that. I can recommend Professional No-Limit Hold 'em for Texas Hold'em cashgame, although it's almost ten years old, and Harrington on Hold 'em for tournaments if you're a beginner although it's a bit outdated if you play seriously.

If you like to watch poker on tv I would recommend watching a show where it's more than coin flip all-in hands. Maybe a final table live stream with or without hole cards where you can try putting players on hands and to predict and understand what's happening. But you should basically try to have fun and learn while you play whichever stakes you're at. It's much more fun as a hobby than a job.

The most fun part about poker in my opinion is reading body language, breathing and eye contact and so on which is something that applies to all parts of life but it takes experience to be able to get that right whether it's about poker or going on dates, and some people will always remain clueless.

u/afoxling · 1 pointr/financialindependence

I was recommended this book by a poker loving friend

https://www.amazon.com/Harrington-Expert-Strategy-Limit-Tournaments/dp/1880685337

It's tournament focused, but a lot of the basic principles are the same. I'd totally recommend reading it with a friend and challenging each other on the questions.

But really, practice. Find a group of good players to join. You'll be donating your money to the table each session, but learning a lot.

u/shootznskores · 1 pointr/poker

Oh I see. Well you can read Kill Everyone [here] (http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/samples/KillEveryone2sample.pdf) which is a pretty good/short read. If you're set on a physical book then HoH is a good choice.

http://www.amazon.com/Harrington-Expert-Strategy-Limit-Tournaments/dp/1880685337

u/Omitson · 1 pointr/TrueReddit

Both books crickets mentioned.

The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman

Personally I've enjoyed Professional No-Limit Hold 'em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta and Ed Miller

THE best forum for poker is 2+2

If you decide to go into playing, and not only studying this game, contact me.

Good luck.

u/fopkins · 1 pointr/poker

http://www.amazon.com/Professional-No-Limit-Hold-em-I/dp/188068540X
http://smallstakesnolimitholdem.com/


These are two of the best books you can buy. You can find them both on several torrent sites if you don't want to pay. (I definitely wouldn't pay for SSNLH, $100 is fleecing the market.)

u/Evstar · 1 pointr/poker

Buy/Torrent and then read these 3 books. They'll give you a pretty fantastic grounding of cash game strategy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1880685000 (read this first, however it's not strictly a NL Hold Em book, it's just important to read)

http://www.amazon.com/No-Limit-Hold-Theory-Practice/dp/188068537X

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/188068540X

u/sutureself8 · 1 pointr/poker

Well, without getting into too much detail, once you get down to 12ish big blinds, you need to start aggressively stealing blinds and going all-in preflop to double up, or else the tournament will pass you by. A good rule of thumb is that once you have bet 10% of your stack, you are "committed" to a hand. Occasionally, if you know your opponents well and you have a suited connector in late position and you just want to see if you hit the flop in any way, you can limp and then push the flop. But generally in tournaments, you never want to be in a situation where you need to double up twice just to get back into the thick of things.

It's all about position. I agree that weak aces are frustrating hands to get when you're short stacked, but if it's folded around to you in late position, you need to go with it.

One nice thing about pushing with 10BB as opposed to 2BB, is that you have a lot of fold equity still. People are pretty much going to call a 2BB raise with almost anything (esp. the big blind), but if you start shoving when you have more money, they are much less likely to call, and the blinds/antes are a huge win for you.

This book is awesome, and although it's not specifically about tournaments, all the concepts apply: BOOK

u/RampLeViews · 1 pointr/poker

Applications of No-Limit Hold'em Matthew Janda was best poker book i've read. His newer one has slightly more info about solver work, but honestly still is slightly outdated just like every other poker book. It's not that all books have BAD info its just obviously not the most advanced concepts/approach to poker problems, which everyone is still learning and developing from solver work. This book laid out what it is to be "GTO" unlike any other book before tho

Amazon link

2+2 Bundle Deal

PDF Download 1

PDF download 2

More links

u/chemistry_teacher · 1 pointr/chess

Agree on Silman (link provided). I read Reinfeld first, but this book uses older notation, not the modern algebraic style (think "BxN", rather than "Bxf6"). Silman is a good followup to Reinfeld in my case, but not so much as a first book.

u/dc_woods · 1 pointr/chess

I've been playing pretty religiously for roughly two years. I'm ~1600 on Chess.com.

ChessTempo is an incredibly valuable resource. With much persistence-- I try to do exercises on there at least an hour a day and sometimes more --my blitz/standard tactics and endgame ratings lie between 1500-1600 and continue to improve. Also, this book did wonders for my play.

In my playing, I've found "jumps" where I leap ~100 rating points which can probably be attributed to new discoveries in my tactical awareness and knowledge of theory (albeit being little in comparison to someone like Zibbit :-).

Obviously awesome people like Zibbit, Kingscrusher, Jerry (ChessNetwork), Christof (ChessExplained) and Greg (Greg Shahade) publish content frequently on YouTube and it's always interesting to revisit some of the material months after viewing as I often see the position more maturely than I had initially.

I hear so much talk from those around my rating of opening repertoire but so little about endgame theory, implications of the position, pawn structure & the notion of majority/minority, and key squares within a particular position -- these are ideas that often the big boys that I just referenced talk about and are ideas that I try to better understand through the analysis of my own games and when I do some "Guess the Move" with GM games. I'm liking the results.

We all were below 1000 at one point... it's about investing time and patience in what gives you the best results in your play. I think the staples of study are tactics and endgame theory but game analysis, best move, "guess the move", opening theory, and all that other fun stuff should be implemented in your study and you should pay close attention to which of those (if not all) are improving your play most.

Good luck.

u/harlows_monkeys · 1 pointr/chess

You can eliminate right off the bat How to Reassess Your Chess as your first Silman book to purchase. The FAQ on Silman's site includes a question on the order to read those three books. Here is his answer:

> The answer depends on your strength. However, let’s say you are 1800 or below. In that case read the 4th edition of How to Reassess Your Chess to page 28, next read all of The Amateur’s Mind, then go back to How to Reassess Your Chess and read the whole thing cover to cover. While reading those two books, spend some time going through Silman’s Complete Endgame Course (only reading as far as your rating level).

If you go to amazon.com's page for How to Reassess Your Chess and click the "Look Inside" link it gives you a preview of the Kindle edition. That preview includes more than the first 28 pages. The Kindle Edition doesn't have page numbers, but if I recall correctly page 28 takes you through "Part One/The Concept of Imbalances".

Given that, you only need to consider purchasing How to Reassess Your Chess after you have finished The Amateur's Mind.

u/Spiritchaser84 · 1 pointr/chess

I think going through a complete game collection would be your best bet. This will introduce you to opening ideas, positional themes, tactics, endgames, etc. All in the package of complete games. I wouldn't branch off into books on specific topics until you've consumed a more general book of well annotated games.

I highly recommend either of these for a good second book:

Logical Chess: Move by Move

Understanding Chess Move by Move

Both books annotate every single move in the game, which is very useful to the beginner. I think one big "a ha!" moment in the development of a chess player is the true realization that every move is important and these books highlight the fact that there is an idea behind each and every move in a game played between high level players and the books explain those ideas thoroughly.

u/TheRPGAddict · 1 pointr/chess

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419124644&sr=8-1&keywords=nunn+chess+move+by+move

I think this book beats Chernev since it has more modern games, engine checked and no silly writing for repetitive moves like castles ( everyone who read Chernev's book knows what I mean ).

u/tshuman7 · 1 pointr/chess

A fine book that hasn't been mentioned yet: [Understanding Chess Move by Move] (http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Chess-Move-John-Nunn/dp/1901983412/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1376777162&sr=8-3&keywords=John+Nunn), John Nunn - Chess is a game of ideas, and this book does a fine job of explaining how top-level chessplayers think. One of his best books...

u/CheCk_m8TT · 1 pointr/chess
u/JoypulpSkate · 1 pointr/tabletopgamedesign

Since you're asking this kind of question, I would say the first step is to read and listen to all the interviews and literature that's out there first first. Having a base knowledge of the industry is going to help you with all future steps you've listed.

Kolbold's Guide to Board Game Design is a great book to kick off the journey.

There's also many board game design podcasts out there that I found extremely helpful:

The Board Game Design Podcast
Ludology
Tuesday Knight Podcast

u/clif_darwin · 1 pointr/starcraft

The Grinder's Manual: A Complete Course in Online No Limit Holdem 6-Max Cash Games https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GBFF890/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BZYlDbE3KE9TY is considered a good starter book.

u/StupidPockets · 1 pointr/poker
u/onlyYGO · 1 pointr/slavelabour

Looking for PDF download copy of

https://www.amazon.com/Grinders-Manual-Complete-Course-Online-ebook/dp/B01GBFF890

$1 PP. USA only please.

EDIT: closed

u/ch00f · 1 pointr/clocks

If you're really looking to make your own clock from scratch, you might want to check out this book. It shows you how to make your own clock out of paper. It's pretty tedious because for instance, to make a gear, you have to cut the two sides of the gear out and then wrap a third thin strip of paper around each tooth. The book has you cut out the parts and assemble them, but you could trace them and cut them out of some pretty thin wood.

As far as the self-immolating feature, this pendulum clock is gravity fed, so you could just make a mechanism that would be triggered by the weight. Just lengthen the string so that it gives you 7 days of non-stop clockage.

Hey, if the string is a fuse, you could have the weight slowly lower itself into a flame :)

u/AxisOfAwesome · 1 pointr/maker

I bought a copy, I'm excited to put it together. As an aside, have you ever considered making a clock, like in this book?. It would probably turn out pretty cool looking

u/crashtumble · 1 pointr/AskEngineers

There are several papercraft clocks that tell reasonably accurate time. I've built this paper clock by James Rudolf a couple of times. The book seems to only to occasionally in be in stock, but it looks like Amazon has it currently. It's a fair bit of work - and there are a couple of small errors in the book that are worth looking up online. But, with patience and lots of time with an x-acto knife, the clock will make a nice tic-toc and keep time.

u/MefiezVousLecteur · 1 pointr/AskMen

If you don't have any already, a good card game like Uno or Fluxx might do. That's technically paper, it's something your friends/family can do when they visit, and as your child(ren) grow(s) they can play too.

And if you want to sex it up, you can play as a couple with the rule that when someone wins a round, the other person has to remove an article of clothing.


Another option might be a paper clock: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Working-Paper-Clock/dp/0060910666 That's something you and your husband can put together as a project.

u/reddilada · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Books.
The Way Things Work is a must have.
The Dangerous Book for Boys is pretty good too. Might be a little over his head although the first amazon review claims their six year old loves it.

u/bripilot · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I can't believe no one has mentioned this. Get "The Dangerous Book for Boys" and read it. Has an abundance of good/cool information for boys/young men/adults. http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0061243582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323357396&sr=8-1

u/Tkconger · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I recommend then to read The Dangerous Book for boys. Its got everything. Knots, How to build a tree house, how to macgyver rig things, and different battle schematics pretty much any knowledge a guy needs to be a guy http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0061243582

u/Yipie · 1 pointr/asktransgender

Things to do with your imagination (either alone or with friends) and don't be afraid to use whatever is around you as props to help out (Sticks, balls, foam noodles, these all work well as super awesome things) - explore and take on the world; rescue the princesses; defeat dragons; Win a race car race; Stop bad guys; Ride Dinosaurs; Be a sneaky ninja stealing the plans to save the day; (You know... Easy stuff.)

In the 'real' world try to fix something WITHOUT looking up ANYTHING on it. If you don't understand it, take it apart and explore it so you can see how it works. Leave it for a day or two and see if you can put it back together, working; Go camping and learn that you can ONLY count on yourself, as everybody seems to forget 'stuff' and to make due, use the things in nature to get by.

It's all a learn by doing. If you MUST study for this then I'll suggest (2) books as starter reference materials - This one and then this other one.

u/SeanMoore · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I don't really know what to do with a 5yr old, but 8yr olds eat this sort of shit up:

http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Book-Boys-Conn-Iggulden/dp/0061243582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293580632&sr=8-1

It's like a guidebook on how to care for an inquisitive boy.

u/TheBlueChannel · 1 pointr/AskReddit

By the sounds of it, you might really like this book. :D

u/Santiclause · 1 pointr/SoccerBetting

I read the book The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong by Chris Anderson. Its not specifically about betting but it covers alot of great analysis about football that can totally apply to betting. It was a great read, definitely changed the way I understand the game and what kind of bets I was making.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465081904&sr=8-1&keywords=the+numbers+game

u/gchrisdean · 1 pointr/mealtimevideos

I love this stuff. For anyone interested in surprising statistical analysis of a sport check out The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong by Chris Anderson. https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560

u/DontToewsMeBrah · 1 pointr/soccer

The Numbers Game, sometimes he gets a little wrapped up in his own little stat world, but theres a lot of interesting stuff in there.

u/Matt_Sheridan · 1 pointr/DnD

Yep, they should have basically the same content, as far as I'm aware. It's just that the one with the simpler cover (this one, I mean) is a recent reprint of the 3.5 PHB.

Anyway. Don't forget that you'll also want a Dungeon Master's Guide as well as a Player's Handbook and Monster Manual. (Or, if you're not planning to be the Dungeon Master yourself, you can skip the MM and just get the PHB.)

u/realeyes_realize_ · 1 pointr/DnD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planar_Handbook.
It was a bit of an updated (updated from 2e) PHB specifically for planescape adventures, it's got expanded races and information on the default dnd cosmology (I think the greyhawk one, I'm not sure).
You can tell them apart from the covers.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER'S HANDBOOK CORE RULEBOOK I v.3.5.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER'S HANDBOOK CORE RULEBOOK I.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS PLAYER'S HANDBOOK II called Book 2 David Noonan.
This is the reprint with errata.

u/ypsm · 1 pointr/DnD

>I know how hard it can be to get your hands on these

Not that hard. amazon.com is selling them for under $33 each (retail $50), and they qualify for Prime shipping:

u/seijio · 1 pointr/billiards

Dr. Dave can help you get better!

Also, a fantastic book is The 99 Critical Shots in Pool. Worth the money to buy a real book and not the digital version.

u/wiredconcepts · 1 pointr/stopdrinking

Yes lots of practice definitely helps you get better at pool. http://www.amazon.com/The-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

You can make bird houses/clocks with simple hand tools without spending tons of money.

u/trinatek · 1 pointr/billiards

99 Critical Shots in Pool is really more of the gold standard.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Critical-Shots-Pool-Everything/dp/0812922417

u/ksadajo · 1 pointr/DnD

I love traps! Every good dungeon should have at least ONE of them IMO. When run correctly, they're a great way to engage your players and get them to work together as a group.

When you design a trap, you need to have a couple things in mind.

The PCs need a way to know that a trap is present.
You (the DM) need to know what triggers the trap.
There needs to be a way for the inhabitants of the dungeon to circumvent the trap.

When running traps, it is incredibly important that PCs have a chance to detect the trap WITHOUT ROLLING. Detecting that a trap is present should not be the encounter. Tell the players about the bloodstain on the ground in front of the hidden wall spear trap. Mention strange bulbous rock formations on the ceiling if one of them is the trigger for a pendulum swinging down. Once again, DON'T MAKE THEM ROLL FOR THIS. The players need to have more agency in a trap encounter other than "which skill check do you want to roll".

Once they know something's up (presuming they connect the dots on their own, if they don't do this then tough luck for them), then the challenge of navigating past the trap comes up, and that's where the players get to come up with a plan and work together to overcome the encounter.

Some great reads to give you ideas on trap design are Grimtooth's traps as well as S1: The Tomb of horrors.

u/Berrigio · 1 pointr/DnD
u/Iron_Pig · 1 pointr/funny

This is actually a totally real thing.
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Erotic-Fantasy-Gwendolyn-Kestrel/dp/097420451X
That's an add on book for adding sexual encounters to your v3.5 DnD campaign. It's actually a pretty funny read, I used to open sessions as a DM by reading a passage.

So i actually knew a girl in high school who played in an dnd campaign where sex was a thing.. I wasn't sure how they roleplayed it out but i do know that they had a GIMP in the form of a cadaver in a bad of holding, which they would rape periodically.

I'm convinced it was a result of too much 4chan, (of any amount of 4chan for that matter).

u/Donaldus · 1 pointr/DnD

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Erotic-Fantasy-Gwendolyn-Kestrel/dp/097420451X

I believe this is what you're looking for. It's got a rather interesting table about what creatures can mate with which. It led to rule number 1 for our gaming group, "Dragon get what dragon want."

u/jadave · 1 pointr/reddit.com

I would put forth that this book beats out that one.

u/xilban · 1 pointr/rpg

This should help, and yes I own a copy.

u/zippyhats · 1 pointr/DMAcademy

Ben Robbins - Microscope

This is literally the perfect thing you are looking for. It's basically collaborative world history generator where you can zoom in and zoom out of various parts of history to see how things unfold. Matt Colville can vouch for it's usefulness.

u/GustoGaiden · 1 pointr/DnD

One part where your friend is absolutely correct is in Skill and Power selection. 4E's tactical combat is really quite good, and the storytelling elements are not really supported by the rules. Therefore, when choosing a power on Level-up, you would be a fool to not pick the power that confers the best tactical advantage. Do you want the ability to add 15 to your athletics roll, or to be able to shift your speed and make 2 attacks? By taking powers that improve chances of good storytelling, you are actively weakening your character in combat. Ideally, you shouldn't have to choose.

Asside from that, 4E rules do not do anything to prevent or hinder storytelling. They just do absolutely NOTHING to assist in it. At it's heart, D&D is a tactical combat game. Look at the stories here, a lot of them are about noteable fights.

Unfortunately, the skill system in D&D encourages you to only do things you are good at, and kind of locks you in to a set path of expertise. If you wanted to become better at a certain thing, you would have to house rule it. People are extremely attached to their characters, and you only get experience for conquering challenges, so there is no rules supported incentive to have bad things happen to your character, which unfortunately makes for REALLY good storytelling.

If you're looking for games that encourage good storytelling, there is a genera called "Story Games". Check out Microscope. It's kind of a world building game where you go through a series of vignettes. Characters are really impermanent, which frees them up to be actual characters who are able to follow their hopes and dreams, instead of walking combat engines.

u/gtranbot · 1 pointr/boardgames

/u/pierec already mentioned Fiasco, which is great, plays fast, and requires very little setup -- and the setup is just as fun as the play.

Another option that I can't recommend highly enough is Microscope. Microscope tends to be less gonzo than Fiasco, and relies even less on external inputs for play (Fiasco games rely on free playsets you can get on the Bully Pulpit webside). Microscope also rewards (but does not require) a dedicated group coming back to the world they create over and over again.

Note that both of these are more like collaborative improv-fiction exercises than proper games, in that there's no winner or loser -- the point is to make an interesting story. But they're wonderful with the right group.

Indie Press Revolution is a great source for indie story games like this, if you want more.

u/desktop_version_bot · 1 pointr/DnD
u/exarchofpelor · 1 pointr/DnD

Play [Microscope] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0983277907/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1420205184&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40) with your players. I cannot reccomend this enough. It's an rpg where you build. A fictional history from scratch. Things get weird, unique, and awesome quickly. All you need are index cards and a pen. The book is pretty thin, and 2 quick read throughs will learn you the rules. The guys that made it deserve the money, though.

u/OurHeroAndy · 1 pointr/rpg

What I try to do is start by figuring out what happens if the PCs do nothing. This establishes what the PCs are up against and tells me what the opposition NPCs are working towards.

"If the PCs don't get to the TARDIS from the underwater base it is lost or someone else gets it"

This tells me that my opposition NPCs will try to prevent them from getting to that base and it let's me know what the PCs have to do: get to this underwater base and get to the TARDIS.

Now I just figure out where the NPCs are gonna start out and decide set pieces they will necessarily need to pass through and write tags for it including possible list of enemies to deal with.

"Entering the underwater base: dark, metal, echo. Seaweed Men (Stats)"

When they enter the underwater base I know the key points I want to hit when I describe the situation to them:

"the lighting is bad down there, flickering overhead lights and the exterior lights are all out. It looks like the inside of a submarine, like a cramped metal tube. every step echos with the emptiness of the base. you pass a person with a tangled mass of seaweed wrapped around it's upper body, as soon as you stop to look at it you hear it groan and start reaching towards you as it stumbles your way."

I try not to write anything linear, because PCs will want to go to the exact place I didn't prepare. During the game as things progress I just try to think of scenes I think would be interesting to have play out.

For Example: "The PCs are convinced there is something significant about the lighthouse. I think it'd be interesting to have them confront the cranky old lighthouse keeper who ends up showing them there is nothing interesting about it but points them towards them in the right direction."

Also the book Play Unsafe can be helpful in learning how to use less prep for more game content. It's definitely worth a read if you're looking for pointers on prep.

u/Kujirasan · 1 pointr/rpg

Here is a very brief book about improv as it relates to RPGs.

The basic principle is to let your players guide the story by saying Yes. Your player will say, " my character jumps onto the table grabs the chandelier and swings across the room lands on the bar and kicks the sword out of his hand" some dms would say "no you can't do that"

When confronted with a player that wants to do something cool say yes and then add to what he wanted to do. So, when he says, say, " my character jumps onto the table grabs the chandelier and swings across the room lands on the bar and kicks the sword out of his hand." You say "OK, so give me an athletics roll" you set the Dc in secret, to say 16. But you also think that it would be cool that the NPC with the sword saw him coming. So he rolls good, with a 23. So you say, " Ok, you jump up on the table, grab the chandelier, swing across the room and land on the bar. You land adroitly in a crouched and ready position. What's your AC?" He says "14." You say, " well he watched you swing across the room and readied an attack he hits you with a 16 as he stabs you in the belly.

The difference is in the first example the dm put up a wall to possible options for the player.

In the second example the dm used judo-like fluidity to humor the player's desire while deepening the action of the fight.

u/Marcassin · 1 pointr/math

For visual beauty, it's hard to beat The Symmetries of Things (2008) by Conway, Burgiel & Goodman-Strauss.

The MAA review says, "The first thing one notices when one picks up a copy of The Symmetries of Things is that it is a beautiful book."

u/xanaxmonk · 1 pointr/mathematics

hey there the bridges conference is about your research topic. Here is a really cute video displaying some of the pieces, which there are descriptions of on the site.

This youtube channel also has a lot of other maths inspired art such as this sculpture and a cute little video on symmetry in music.

Good luck with your project!

e: also thirding the mc escher suggestion :)

e2: also if you're interested here is an accessible book (pdf)on symmetry in mathematics, which as you can imagine, ends up being a relevant topic for thinking about art.

u/TheOrigamiKid · 1 pointr/origami

Aha! I see a Menger sponge or two and some Thomas Hull intersecting tetrahedra. Excellent!

I'd highly recommend this book (http://www.amazon.com/Origami-Tessellations-Awe-Inspiring-Geometric-Designs/dp/1568814518) for getting started in tessellations. They're similar in spirit to modular origami (to which I see you're well-informed), but I find it much easier to fold these when I travel for work (It's just one piece of paper) and make better gifts (they can be hung from a wall/window for backlighting and fit an "adults" house better).

Bonne chance!

u/FearlessGT · 1 pointr/origami

You should get this book Origami Tessellations: Awe-Inspiring Geometric Designs by Eric Gjerde, you can buy it from here,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Origami-Tessellations-Awe-Inspiring-Geometric-Designs/dp/1568814518/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415997968&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=origami+tessillations

Its a very good starting place, the models start of very simple, and get slightly more difficult as you progress through the book, the diagrams are very clear, pictures are shown for most steps and there is also a coloured Mountain and Valley Crease pattern for each model which helps ALOT! :).

If you dont want to buy the book, you can find lots of examples and tutorials on youtube, ill provide a link to a few,

Five-and-Four Tessellation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2boGii3i9s

Star Puff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhyM6_ioTCE

For the paper, you can use Glassine, super thin, which you can get from the Origami shop.com
http://www.origami-shop.com/en/extra-thin-glassine-xsl-207_215_624_633.html

Tant
http://www.origami-shop.com/en/tant-papers-origami-xsl-207_215_458_625.html.

Hope this helps! :D

u/California_Fresh · 0 pointsr/leagueoflegends

I think that makes the game better.

I know it sounds weird, but for me, this makes the game more like an actual sport, which is the biggest draw for me. It allows for more strategies and more emphasis on learning what went wrong the prior game besides just mechanical mistakes. Furthermore, I think the team based aspect allows for more comebacks.

I understand people have different opinions, but the quality of playing and watching League feels better when it is driven by having your worst player being better than the teams worst player. League is most similar to soccer in that respect. I respect all other opinions though, just my thoughts

Edit: https://www.amazon.com/Numbers-Game-Everything-About-Soccer/dp/0143124560
Here is the book that I got the fact that in soccer it is more important for the worst player to be better than the best player.

u/invisible_monkey · 0 pointsr/IWantToLearn

I co-DMed a larger group (between eight and fifteen people, eventually it got down to about seven regulars) and highly recommend that style. Not only do you have someone to plan with, one of you can focus on the story and the other with bookkeeping.

We would usually get together one night a week over beers (beer is essential) and figure out our general plan for the week, and also have a backup plan sketched out if they diverged from the usual "go to this town and talk to [this NPC]" D&D formulation. We had an overarching storyline we hoped they would follow as well as background on the continent in general, the seven or eight largest cities on it and their surrounding areas, and settled on a general hobgoblin infestation for what was plaguing whatever area they happened to be in. Then we'd carpool to the session and work out details or refresh what we'd talked about earlier in the week.

It speeds up D&D combat in particular tremendously to have one asking "What are you doing this turn?" and the other noting damage done and taken. Having someone else to briefly consult with on hard choices or where to take the story or given situation next without involving the players was also a huge benefit.

There were a huge number of other bonuses to this method: If someone was split off from the group, one of us would just take them in the other room and run their part of the story solo instead of making the rest of the group wait.

"Going private" would keep the other players in the dark about what the solo was up to, leaving a nice RP opportunity for that player to fill in or not fill in what happened to them once they rejoined the group. Conversely, the group could do the same to the solo player.

The other thing that I adopted in our last campaign was the belief that even though the characters were low-level the world around them wasn't necessarily the same. We devised dungeons that had really really nasty stuff three levels down with the easy stuff up top. Sure, we'd put a rockslide or something in their way to make sure they really wanted to go there if they ignored any sorts of warnings about what they might uncover. However, with high risk comes high reward--had they killed the big guy maybe there was a huge pile of gold or some amazing items to be had.

Also, you'll need a copy of this.

u/MrMiracle26 · -1 pointsr/rpg

Sigh, look up the book "Book of Erotic Fantasy." It covers sex in D&D and roleplaying in general. I know it's a good book having used it myself and knowing the people who play-tested it. it covers everything from blessing children [and them earning the half-demon/celestial template] to gestation periods for mixed race couples. Very tasteful.
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Erotic-Fantasy-Gwendolyn-Kestrel/dp/097420451X

u/failed_novelty · -1 pointsr/rpg

I'll just leave this here.

Seriously? Well balanced book, gives your campaign a whole new focus, and is good on both alignment issues and complex NPC interactions.