#Granular systems

[little-p-eng-engineering]

Little P.Eng. for Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) Services

In a world driven by technological advancements, the ability to understand granular systems at a particle level has never been more essential. This precise understanding has been made possible through a computational technique known as Discrete Element Modeling (DEM). While many entities offer DEM services, Little P.Eng. has carved a niche for itself as a front-runner in this specialized domain.

Understanding Discrete Element Modeling (DEM)

Before diving into the specifics of Little P.Eng.'s offerings, it's essential to demystify DEM:

DEM is Calculation-based Modeling: At the heart of DEM is mathematics. This method uses precise calculations to predict the behavior of individual particles within a system. By doing so, it can accurately predict the interactions and outcomes when these particles are subjected to various conditions.

DEM Allows for Visualizing Results: One of the standout features of DEM is its ability to provide visual results. Users can observe:

Particle Velocity: Understand the speed and direction of individual particles.

Forces: This includes shear (parallel to the surface) and normal (perpendicular to the surface) forces that the particles experience.

Moments: This refers to the bending and torsional (twisting) moments affecting the particles.

Acceleration and Material Scatter: Track how quickly particles move and the variations in their dispersion patterns.

DEM: More than just Flow Simulation: While DEM is instrumental in predicting the flow of bulk materials, its capabilities extend beyond this. It plays a crucial role in understanding:

Wear Patterns: Predict how equipment will fare over time by simulating particle interaction and the resultant wear.

Mixing: Understand how different particles mix, which is vital in industries like pharmaceuticals and food production.

Center Loading: This refers to the loading pattern where materials concentrate towards the center, crucial in industries like construction.

DEM Programs: The Power Behind the Predictions

Any tool is only as good as the software powering it. When it comes to DEM, numerous programs can be used to perform this intricate modeling:

EDEM: A market leader, renowned for its comprehensive modeling capabilities.

PFC (Particle Flow Code): Known for its versatility, offering both 2D and 3D simulations.

LIGGGHTS: An open-source powerhouse that's both versatile and widely accepted.

Rocky DEM: Its strength lies in simulating realistic particle shapes, crucial for specific industries.

Yade: An open-source tool prized for its extensibility.

Abaqus: A multi-faceted software that, beyond its renowned finite element analysis, offers DEM capabilities.

Ansys Rocky: Building on the Ansys platform's strengths, it focuses on granular flow simulations.

Barracuda Virtual Reactor: Ideal for energy sector applications, especially particle reactions.

Also there are some open sources:

Kratos Multiphysics is developed by CIMNE (International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering) in Barcelona and covers all kinds of numerical simulations, including DEM/PEM and DEM/PEFM-FEM coupling.

YadeDEM is a DEM package that is specifically designed for geomechanics.

Woo is a fork of YadeDEM with a strong focus on parallel computing and portability.

LAMMPS is a general purpose DEM/PEM.

LIGGGHTS is a general purpose DEM software that includes heat transfer simulations and is based on LAMMPS.

ESyS Particle is developed at the University of Queensland, Australia, with a focus on geoscientic/geotechnical applications.

GranOO is a general purpose DEM.

MercuryDPM is a general purpose Discrete Particle Method (DPM) software.

Little P.Eng.: Setting the Gold Standard in DEM Services

In the expansive realm of DEM, Little P.Eng. shines brightly, and here's why:

Mastery Over Multiple Platforms: Their team is proficient in a diverse array of DEM programs, ensuring they always have the right tool for the job.

A Client-centric Approach: They tailor their solutions, ensuring that each client's unique needs and challenges are addressed.

In-depth Analysis: Beyond merely running simulations, they delve deep, integrating real-world measurements to enhance simulation accuracy.

Applications and Implications of DEM in Industries

The true power of DEM, as harnessed by Little P.Eng., lies in its diverse applications:

Equipment Design: Through DEM, companies can design equipment that's optimized for longevity and efficiency.

Optimizing Production Lines: By understanding how granular materials behave, industries can fine-tune their production lines for maximum efficiency.

Safety Protocols: Predicting particle behavior, especially in industries dealing with hazardous materials, can lead to enhanced safety protocols.

Challenges in DEM and How Little P.Eng. Overcomes Them

DEM, while powerful, isn't without its challenges. The accuracy of simulations is heavily reliant on input parameters. Additionally, the computational demands for large-scale simulations are immense.

Little P.Eng. rises above these challenges through a blend of rigorous experimental data collection and a deep understanding of the DEM software landscape. Their iterative approach ensures that simulations are continually refined for better accuracy.

Conclusion

Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) is transforming our understanding of granular systems. With its capability to provide in-depth insights at a particle level, its applications span a wide array of industries.

In this domain, Little P.Eng. emerges not just as a service provider, but as a trusted partner, guiding businesses towards better efficiency, safety, and innovation. As we venture further into an era where the micro informs the macro, the services of entities like Little P.Eng., underpinned by the power of DEM, will undoubtedly be invaluable.

Read more:

Little P.Eng. for Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) Services: Unveiling the Power of Simulation

The Importance of Discrete Element Modeling (DEM) Studies and What Problems It Can Solve

Tags:

Little P.Eng.

Discrete Element Modeling

Mixing

Granular systems

Particle behavior

EDEM

PFC (Particle Flow Code)

LIGGGHTS

Rocky DEM

Yade

Abaqus

Ansys Rocky

Barracuda Virtual Reactor

Calculation-based modeling

Particle velocity

Shear forces

Normal forces

Bending moments

Torsional moments

Acceleration

Material scatter

Flow simulation

Wear patterns

Center loading

Equipment design

Production line optimization

Safety protocols

Computational simulations

Input parameters

Simulation accuracy

Bulk Material Handling & Processing

Engineering Services

Located in Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Houston Texas; Torrance, California; El Segundo, CA; Manhattan Beach, CA; Concord, CA; We offer our engineering consultancy services across Canada and United States. Meena Rezkallah.

[akiacia]

the things that come back

[shitty-check-please-aus]

sometimes it really does feel like my middle school teachers knew that Hamilton and Six were gonna exist and be huge, because we spent just a truly disproportionate amount of time learning about the Revolutionary War and Henry VIII

[pizzleyanked]

i know i have said this before on this blog, but unexplored 2 is really such an amazing game

[sillimancer]

I'm thinking about being cute and using the dewey decimal system to tag my more structured blog but I am foreseeing some problems as someone who takes a great interest in world religions

do you see the problem

[klysanderelias]

Had a chance to try out Twilight 2000, by the same publisher that did Mutant (of Year Zero fame) and Tales from the Loop.

I had a lot of fun! I think that Twilight 2000 is like, a hyperspecific type of game that I can't recommend to basically anyone without giving them the full rundown, but I think for the very specific thing that it does, it does it really well and I think it really hits the vibe it's going for.

Two big criticisms off the bat - one, the rulebook is laid out kind of badly, and NEEDS some sort of easy-reference sheet for things like basic rolling, ammo dice, etc. There are 3rd party reference sheets made by some rando that help out, but they're still extremely cluttered and are only useful for very specific things.

And two, the politics are just abysmally stupid. Reading through the alternate history of the setting is astonishing just how completely divorced from reality it is, and it's just the most ridiculous way to do a completely normal premise for this type of game. Like, the Red Alert series (including RA3) has a more coherent timeline built on better analysis.

That being said, it's pretty easy to ignore the politics, because the actual playable part of the ttrpg really doesn't care much about whether Bill Clinton would roll over and let the Soviet Union invade Poland and Finland (noted dove Bill Clinton who never famously intervened militarily in Eastern Europe). It's still stupid, and reading through the first chapter of the GM's rulebook gives me a headache, but again, it's not really necessary to the game itself.

The actual rules of the game are heavily focused around combat, and the resulting infections and dying of dysentery two weeks later. I joke, but seriously, this game takes bullet wounds extremely seriously, and that's something that's kind of exciting. There's a level of lethality that's extremely unusual for such a granular game - it's very possible for combatants to be taken out of the fight by a single bullet (as happened in our combat). And of course, once someone has suffered an injury, they don't just have to recover HP, they have to worry about infections, and recovery times, and if they've suffered Critical Damage they may be permanently disabled or dying.

And there's something really nice about that because it really changes the approach - I know that there are a lot of people on here talking about OSR and other similar rule systems that incentivize players not to just charge into combat the way that DnD does - there's no challenge rating or power level, even a child with a cobbled together pipe gun can kill a fully armored veteran GI.

Our session was really interesting because we got the drop on the opponents and basically deleted two of them instantly, before reinforcements arrived. My character was standing out in the open and two separate shots whizzed right by him and made his life flash before my eyes. And it was exciting! It was a hell of a lot of fun to know that I had set things up poorly, and this guy was seconds away from dying because he failed his chance to intimidate the enemies into walking away.

It was also fun because since combat is so scary, and lethal, it's REALLY rewarding to win one. We incapacitated or killed 3 people, and found a huge treasure trove because we could loot them and the surroundings. Our GM was like 'this seems like a crazy amount' and I was like, yeah, it IS, and also we faced down FOUR GUYS WITH RIFLES for this.

There's a big oregon trail type aspect to the game too, where a lot of the game's narrative is about traveling through the fighting and trying to survive, hunting for food, searching for clean water, avoiding radiation from nukes, etc. And I think that that's where a lot of players will fall off the fastest - I think it's one thing to get shot by a guy with a gun and lose your character, and another for a sudden squall to put out your campfire, give everyone hypothermia, and slowly kill your character over two weeks because there aren't any medical supplies to reverse the pneumonia.

But also I think it's very STALKER-esque, and I'm reserving judgment on it because we didn't actually get to that point - I think that my reflexive thought is that that side of the gameplay is going to suck, because I haven't looked into any of the GM materials so I don't know how much detail goes into exploring a given space. It's like, I think in abstract walking into a place and exploring SOUNDS fun, but in practice it requires a lot of finely crafted description AND also requires the player to be able to exercise agency. It's not particularly interesting in a ttrpg to get a short story about how you walked into a cabin and found some rats, and it's not particularly fun to go 'wow that was some incredible scene setting, I will now roll 1d6 and move on forever'.

But that being said, I'm looking forward to playing more of it because it's not DnD, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it because I think that it's a breath of fresh air to play a game that knows exactly what it's trying to be. I'm still not sure I know exactly what it's trying to be, but I do feel like I've got a good handle on it, and that the game seems pretty focused on a specific type of play, and so far is delivering on it.

I do think that I'm really struggling in my head to come up with a story that this game specifically does well - again, it feels kind of like STALKER, but it specifically doesn't have anything supernatural (or any monsters); and it's very sandbox-y, which means that there isn't much direction in the actual rulebooks as to what the PCs should be doing. It's just like, this game really doesn't feel like it's built for a group of soldiers behind enemy lines trying to stop a nuke launch or whatever, it really does just feel like oregon trail where the goal is 'just kinda keep going until you all either die or you make it out'.

And y'know, I think that you CAN use the rules of this game to do something a little more engaging, but it just feels like one of those DayZ, Rust, project zomboid, type games that are just there for people to fuck around and make their own fun in, and that's great? I guess? But it does leave me, the same way that games like Rust do, going 'so what are we DOING here'. And specifically in the sense of like, I'm happy to play it, and I think there's a lot of fun to be had, but the actual RULES aren't doing any lifting in terms of creating reasons to play the game. Maybe there are published modules that give a little more direction, but I'm pretty sure I have most of the official published library for the game, and I think that it's either putting SO much work on the GM to keep the game from feeling bland and lifeless, or it's really just built for preppers.

[margoindustries01]

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[awkward-teabag]

You know what, I'm going to add to this after all. Ray tracing is a gimmick and infamous for how intensive it is on hardware where it updates in real time, such as in video games. Before it was considered at all feasible outside rendering CGI, there were other methods of simulating light that were far easier for hardware to handle and, honestly, the difference between them (I can't remember what the name of the algorithm is) and ray tracing is minimal.

Adding to the problem is video card manufacturers pushing it while not increasing the VRAM on cards that are now expected to handle ray tracing, NPC scripts/AI, all other graphics, and stream encoding at the same time. GPUs have not seen a meaningful increase in VRAM in years despite the push of 4k graphics and ray tracing.

Oh and handling generating in-between frames to increase FPS/hide poor optimisation and up-scaling from 1080p to 4k or 8k. Sometimes both at the same time (in addition to the rest).

Further compounding it is consoles using stripped down versions of GPUs but not allowing users to upgrade them or other hardware. At least not in an easy way that doesn't void the warranty.

There's only so much that can be off-loaded to other components and it is a Choice™ to decide not to include an option to disable features that minimally improve the graphics (I specify graphics since more than one game has been released where turning off ray tracing wasn't the first thing recommended to turn off if you wanted to hit 30+ FPS) but can and do overwhelm GPUs.

Mandatory Ray Tracing should be banned in games. Genuinely absurd to think the majority of consumers are running high performing RTX graphics cards.

[margoindustries]

Vacuum Conveying System: Efficient Bulk Material Handling Solutions

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[scottjackson9]

How to Effectively Use Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular to Keep Pests at Bay

Are pesky animals wreaking havoc in your garden? If you're tired of chasing away deer, rabbits, and other unwelcome visitors, it's time to discover a practical solution—Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular. This powerful repellent helps protect your plants and keeps those furry intruders at bay. With its unique formulation and easy application methods, you can reclaim your outdoor space without the frustration of traditional repellents that don't cut it. Let's dive into how this innovative product works and why it's becoming a favorite among gardeners everywhere. Say goodbye to unwanted pests, and hello to a flourishing garden! Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular

Benefits of Using Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular

Using Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular offers a range of benefits that make it stand out. First and foremost, its systemic action ensures long-lasting protection. Unlike surface repellents, this granular formula is absorbed by plants, creating an internal barrier against hungry animals.

Another advantage is its effectiveness against a wide variety of pests. Whether dealing with deer, rabbits, or squirrels, this product provides comprehensive coverage to safeguard your garden.

Additionally, the ease of application makes it user-friendly for anyone—there are no complicated processes here. Just apply the granules around the base of your plants and let them work their magic.

Plus, once applied, it's odorless! This means you can enjoy your outdoor space without unpleasant smells lingering in the air. It's a practical choice for those looking to maintain aesthetics and functionality in their gardens.

Understanding the Active Ingredients and How They Work

Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular is designed to effectively deter unwanted pests. Its unique formulation includes active ingredients that work by altering the taste of plants.

When animals consume treated vegetation, they experience a bitter or unpleasant flavor. This deters them from returning for more. The system also creates a barrier effect in the plant's tissues, making it less appealing.

The granules penetrate the soil and are absorbed by roots, ensuring lasting protection. This systemic action means your plants continue to fend off pests as they grow.

Additionally, these ingredients target common nuisances like deer and rabbits without harming beneficial wildlife. Understanding how these elements interact with nature can help you achieve a pest-free garden while supporting healthy ecosystems around your home.

Application Techniques for Maximum Effectiveness

Proper application is key to getting the best results with Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular. Start by assessing your garden or yard. Identify areas where pests are most likely to invade.

Evenly distribute the granules around plant bases and along pathways, covering a wide perimeter for maximum coverage.

Watering after applying helps activate the repellent properties. This allows the active ingredients to sink into the soil and reach plant roots effectively.

Timing matters, too. Apply during calm weather to prevent wind from scattering granules away from targeted areas. Early morning or late afternoon works well when temperatures are more relaxed, ensuring better absorption into plants.

Regular reapplication maintains effectiveness, especially after heavy rain or irrigation. Monitoring pest activity can help determine if more frequent applications are necessary for ongoing protection.

Additional Tips for Maximum Effectiveness

Timing is crucial to getting the most out of Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular. Apply it in early spring or late fall when plants are actively growing. This ensures the active ingredients are absorbed efficiently.

Watering your plants after application helps enhance absorption. Aim for deep watering to encourage systemic distribution throughout the plant's tissues.

Consider applying in areas with high pest activity or where you've noticed damage. Targeted use can lead to quicker results and reduce wastage.

Monitor your garden regularly for signs of pests returning. If you notice an uptick, reapply as necessary based on the label instructions.

Combine usage with cultural practices like rotating crops and maintaining cleanliness around your garden space to deter unwanted visitors. These integrated methods create a holistic approach to pest management that works synergistically with Repellex granules.

Eco-Friendly and Safe for Pets and Children

When it comes to protecting your garden or lawn, safety is a priority. Repellex Systemic Animal Repellent Granular stands out as an eco-friendly solution. Its unique formulation ensures you can keep pests at bay without compromising the environment's health.

What sets this product apart is its thoughtful design for pets and children. The active ingredients are derived from natural sources, making them less harmful than traditional chemical repellents. You can apply Repellex with peace of mind, knowing that your loved ones are safe while effectively deterring unwanted animals.

Moreover, with its systemic action, the granules work their way into plants and foliage once applied. This means that even when animals nibble on treated plants, they encounter an unappethat'staste that is harmless to other living beings in your space.

Choosing an animal repellent doesn’tdoesn'to mean sacrificing sustainability or safety—Repellex delivers both efficiently! By incorporating this reliable product into your pest management strategy, you're you'reenhancing the charm of your outdoor spaces and contributing positively to the overall ecological balance.

[maximumzombiecreator]

It's often remarked how D&D 5e's play culture has this sort of disinterest bordering on contempt for actually knowing the rules, often even extending to the DM themselves. I've seen a lot of different ideas for why this is, but one reason I rarely see discussed is that actually, a lot of 5e's rules are not meant to be used.

Encumbrance is a great example of this. 5e contains granular weights for all the items that you might have in your inventory, and rules for how much you can carry based on your strength score, and they've set these carry capacities high enough that you should never actually need to think about them. And that's deliberate, the designers have explicitly said that they've set carrying capacity high enough that it shouldn't come up in normal play. So for a starting DM, you see all these weights, you see all the rules for how much people can carry or drag, and you've played Fallout, you know how this works. And then if you try to actually enforce that, you find that it's insanely tedious, and it basically never actually matters, so you drop it.

Foraging is the example of this that bothers me most. There's a whole system for this! A table of foraging DCs, and math for how much food you can find, and how long you can go without food, etc. But the math is set up so that a person with no survival proficiency and a +0 to WIS, in a hostile environment, will still forage enough food to be fine, and the starvation rules are so generous that even a run of bad luck is unlikely to matter. So a DM who actually tries to use these rules will quickly find that they add nothing but bookkeeping. You're rolling a bunch of checks every day of travel for something that is purpose built not to matter. And that's before you add in all the ways to trivialize or circumvent this.

These rules don't exist to be used, that is not their purpose. These rules exist because the designers were scared of the backlash to 4e, and wanted to make sure that the game had all the rules that D&D "should" have. But they didn't actually want these mechanics. They didn't want the bookkeeping, they didn't care about that style of play, but they couldn't just say, "this game isn't about that" for fear of angering traditionalists. And unfortunately the way they handled this was by putting in rules that are bad, that actively fight anyone who wants to use that style of play and act as a trap to people who take the rules in good faith.

And this means that knowing what rules are not supposed to be used is an actual skill 5e DMs develop. Part of being a good 5e DM is being able to tell the real rules that will improve your game from the fake rules that are there to placate angry forum posters. And that's just an awful position to put DMs in (especially new DMs), but it's pretty unsurprising that it creates a certain contempt for knowing the rules as written.

You should have contempt for some of the rules as written. The designers did.

[toskarin]

the UK gov's approach to solving crime by banning weapons with increasing granularity is almost respectable if only because it means you periodically get to hear people who believe in that system get a little indignant like "well YOU would understand it if you had to deal with ninja sword massacres"

[wilwheaton]

Trump had given Musk and his operatives carte blanche to tap any unclassified system they pleased. One of their first stops: a database previously breached more than a decade ago by alleged Chinese cyberspies that contained investigative files on tens of millions of US government employees. Other storehouses thrown open to DOGE may have included federal workers’ tax records, biometric data, and private medical histories, such as treatment for drug and alcohol abuse; the cryptographic keys for restricted areas at federal facilities across the country; the personal testimonies of low-income-housing recipients; and granular detail on the locations of particularly vulnerable children. What did DOGE want with this kind of information? None of it seemed relevant to Musk’s stated aim of identifying waste and fraud, multiple government finance, IT, and security specialists told WIRED. But in treating the US government itself as a giant dataset, the experts said, DOGE could help the Trump administration accomplish another goal: to gather much of what the government knows about a given individual, whether a civil servant or an undocumented immigrant, in one easily searchable place. WIRED spoke with more than 150 current and former federal employees, experts, and Musk supporters across more than 20 agencies to expose the inner workings of DOGE. Many of these sources requested anonymity to speak candidly about what DOGE has done—and what it might do next.

Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’ | WIRED

This is sickening. Take the time to read this whole article, and be informed. You need to know who these criminals are, and what they are doing to our personal, private, deeply NOT THEIR FUCKING BUSINESS information.

[copperbadge]

Thank you so much for your post on ADHD and managing communication. It was really interesting see your thought process and an example of how you set up systems that work for you. I was wondering if you'd mind sharing a little about how you handle task management (the “make sure you do the tasks promptly” part). This is something I (also only diagnosed with ADHD as an adult) feel like I really struggle with, especially at work. Thanks!

I wish I had as...systematic an explanation for that as I do for other aspects of my work and life management, to be honest. For me the most important part is remembering that I even need to do the thing in the first place, so I always focus on systems that will help with that. While I do have trouble starting projects sometimes, I rarely have trouble finishing them, so that aspect is not the most significant part of the struggle for me and not something I've spent as much time on. Still, I do have some advice!

For me the problem, when it happens, is almost always with getting started. I have a few strategies for that. The very first is to remind myself that it's never going to take as long or be as hard as I think it is. That kind of reminder has to feel true and that truth really only comes with time -- you have to be taught over and over, through experience, that "the task isn't that awful". For this the best I can recommend is, every time you finish something, take a moment to stop and reflect how hard it was to get started, and how once you got started it was actually much easier than you thought it would be. If you can identify "being scared of starting" as being the hardest part, eventually you can come to believe that the fear is normal and can be ignored because it's also your brain lying to you.

Another thing I do very often is break tasks I don't want to do (or am struggling to start) into extremely granular portions. If I have to make a powerpoint presentation, and I'm struggling to know where to begin, I'll take it really small steps at a time. Like, my to-do list for the presentation might read:

Open Powerpoint

Fill out the title slide

Gather all research into a folder (do not open any of it)

Start reviewing your research one file at a time

Start sorting your research into appropriate groups based on subject matter or where in the presentation they'll go

Look at the way your research is grouped, just look for a while

Which part of the research would you tell someone to start with if they're new to the subject matter?

That's slide one.

Usually at that point I'm in the "flow" enough that I can stop looking at those granular steps, but it's also fucking astonishing how often just opening the program I need to do the thing in can drop me into the project so deep I'll surface hours later having nearly completed it.

So my first step for any task, once I know it's time to work on it, is just to open the program needed and gather all my resources in one place and give myself permission to ONLY do that. Those two things, which are easy in themselves (they usually don't need much thought) trigger that "this is what I'm doing now" state and even if I don't finish the project, I will at least make headway. This works in non-digital, non-work ways too -- if you're going to paint a wall, gather all your supplies first in one place and make sure you have everything you need. In the process of doing that you start to become more at ease with the idea of actually doing it, and even if you don't do it right that minute, now you're actually feeling prepared for when you do.

And honestly even knowing all that I still struggle sometimes. That's just the nature of the beast. Adderall helps a lot, and age has helped because I know what I'm capable of and it's often more than I believe at the start. But it's just always going to take more energy for me than for some people. Making sure I'm fed, rested, clean, and medicated helps a great deal, so I recommend looking after yourself when you DON'T have a project looming, but I also recommend giving yourself some grace when you do -- these things are just the challenges we face.

[freelyjoyfultrash]

This reminds me of what I've seen of Owlcat's Rogue Trader VRPG, and you've found a really interesting way to make wealth actually useable.

Anyways, speaking of working on games, how about some Stampede Wasteland updates;

Working on a carousing table;

Also a little table to inspire GMs when they need to whip up a last second mission;

And the highlight of this post, rules for tracking Resources and rules for tracking money. Resources first.

The goal was to come up with an abstracted way of keeping track of the more mundane supplies and stuff that PCs are going to need without having to worry about actually keeping track of things. So, behold, either you have it or you don't.

Resources Each player has an abstract, binary pool of Resources. This covers rations, water, fuel, bullets. All the bare necessities. If it is ever in question whether you have Resources or not, roll+Hits marked. On a success, you’re out of what you need. You either have Resources or you don’t. There’s no in between. 

And now for wealth. Originally, I had a pretty standard "this sort of things costs this much" and "this job might reward this much". But here's the thing, coming up with actual monetary values sucks and I hate doing it! Also, given that supplies are abstract, why shouldn't money be abstract? Internal consistency is nice.

So, two birds one stone, I ripped out the original "wealth system" and replaced it with the following;

Cash Each player has an abstract pool of cash on hand at any given moment. The exact amount doesn’t matter. You can have No Money, A Little Money, A Lot of Money, or More Money Than You Could Ever Imagine (you cannot actually ever have this much money, bummer).  Each time you gain A Little Money, mark one slot on the track (10 slots). Once the track is filled up, you have A Lot of Money.  If you have A Little Money, you can always afford things that cost A Little Money. Same for A Lot of Money. If a situation ever arises where you might lose money, roll+money slots marked vs 20. On a success, you’re good. On a miss, step down one wealth level.  Money is tracked individually, but you can give a slot of Money to someone else if you really want. Cash rewards go to whoever is the agreed upon treasurer. Hope you trust them. If a character ever dies with wealth on them, half the number of marked money slots can be recovered from their remains, rounded down to a minimum of zero.  Nobody starts the game with any money.

Ultimately, how much money you have wasn't going to matter in the game beyond bookkeeping, just whether or not you had enough. And this subsystem represents that better. I ended up going with "roll+money slots marked" as the "modifier" to the roll because it makes some sense that the more cash you have, the harder it is to lose it all.

Still plugging away at the GM facing material, but honestly, almost all the player-facing stuff is done (and I'm going to be doing some small playtesting, before maybe opening it up some. We'll see.), and it is nice to get closer and closer to text-complete.

[maniculum]

One of the things I’ve noticed working in a bookstore is that a surprising number of people are completely unfamiliar with the normal way books are organized.

(I mean, in the part of the store where we keep the used books, I frequently have to assure people that the books are organized at all, but that’s because we have way more books than we have shelf space and there’s no way to handle that without it looking a bit of a mess.)

On one hand, we get customers who are apparently a completely blank slate in this area. I frequently have to walk people through, like, “Okay, it’s organized by subject / genre, then by author. Oh, ‘by author’ means in alphabetical order by the name of the author. No, their last name.” (Most of the people I give this talk to are, I think, college kids — it’s a bit strange to me that you can reach that age without knowing how bookstores work, but then again, I can kind of see how these days it’s possible to mostly get your books online where you just use a search function.)

One customer responded to the above explanation with “oh, it’s the Dewey Decimal System!” and I had to be like… no. Similar in broad concept, yes, but the Dewey Decimal System is a very specific thing (involving… decimals) and it’s really only used in libraries, not bookstores, because it kind of requires you to label the spines of your books, which bookstores generally don’t like to do for obvious reasons.

On the other hand, we also get customers with pre-existing incorrect assumptions, which are so often similar that I think they’re being imported from other media (though I’m not sure what).

People seem to expect the organization of Fiction to be much more granular — e.g., “where’s historical fiction?” “oh, that’s just in with general fiction.” I think some of that comes from movies (people ask where the “rom-com” section is, and that’s definitely a movie thing), but I’m not sure that’s always the reason.

(Admittedly the fiction organization is a bit more granular in the Used Books area than it is in the New Books, but that’s because there are certain genres that we get tons of from people selling us their old books, but we don’t buy enough of on purpose to justify giving them their own section in New Books.)

At the same time, people have the opposite assumption about Non-Fiction — i.e., they expect there to be one singular section labeled “Non-Fiction”, which is not the case. I’ve had multiple conversations that go like:

Customer: Where can I find non-fiction books?

Me: You’ll have to be more specific.

Customer: You know, non-fiction.

Me: [gesturing at the signs hanging from the ceiling that say things like “science”, “philosophy”, “art”, “history”, etc.] All of these are non-fiction in their own special way.

I try to be nice about it, but I don’t think I always succeed, just because I’m so often legitimately surprised and confused when someone just doesn’t know How Do You Books. I’m getting used to it now, but I’ve been working there for almost five years, so there’s been quite a long adjustment period in between.

Anyway. Just some observations.