u/Cheomesh

Thinking about biking to the station for work again instead of taking the bus, and figure Camden probably makes the most sense. Can't really take the bike to Union Station since low platforms and I don't mix well, and my office is on a metro line anyway. Someone asked a few years back and it seemed pretty positive, especially if you lock up well (which I do, even eying some security skewers and ditching my QRs). That was 2022 though - how is it in 2026?

Looking to swap my QRs out for security skewers like pitlocks, though a glance online seems to suggest people had issues sizing them properly - and no solutions.

Seems to me like I'd want 120mm front and 155mm rear since hubs are usually 100mm and 135mm, and we've got to account for the dropout and racks mounted on it.

Anyone here successfully used any kind of security skewer on their Preamble, and if so what size was it you settled on?

Amherst has concluded, here is my experience.

I've been taking Airlanding squads in my thematic British lists mostly to carry LMGs as backline holders or to be cheap rifle squads - pretty much always Regular, though they can be Vets (and Stubborn on either setting). If I want SMGs, I turn to Airborne squads which are more expensive as Stubborn Veterans, but you get five SMGs max - compare to the Airlanding squads only getting two between the NCO and one other guy.

In your experience is there much value in giving squads one or two SMGs when that is the limit, or do you find this is wasted points since most of the squad is more comfortable at well over SMG range?

A couple days back I posted a sample NPC I'd been putting together to refresh myself on 3.5 building and also to sort of highlight an aspect of my campaign world. Got some handy feedback on some oversights, but I wanted to hone in on another aspect of NPC building - the equipment budget.

Since this guy's a set-piece example I figured why not try and do something more than the bare essentials. He's a scholar bureaucrat whose day job is being a clerk for his higher ups on an expedition overseas. What I've got for him so far is:

Equipment (2,500GP 3rd Lvl NPC Value)

• Backpack - 2gp / 2lb
• Masterwork Scholar's Jian (Rapier but Slashing) - 320GP / 2lb
• Musical Instrument, Common (Erhu?) - 5gp / 3lb
• Scholar's Outfit - 5gp / 6lb

So a whopping...332GP. Leaving him with the pauper's sum of 2,168GP.

This is a low-ish magic setting though his society is a fair bit more magic-forward so there's room for some stuff. He's not much of an adventurer (he has 9HP and no weapon proficiencies...) but he might fancy himself a long walk through relatively civilized lands eventually.

SO how do you guys spend that budget, if you bother, for more "story piece" characters like this? I thought about padding the kit a bit by giving his robes some AC (it's quality silk, that's gotta be worth AC1 right?) and costing it like padded armor but he's not proficent anyway.

There's no "scribes kit" or anything like that similar to what you get with the Artisan's Toolkit. Plus I figure the office supplies the paper and brushes anyway.

Lots of enchantment might be unbecoming of his status (half elf rank lower on the social totem pole) but they are allowed some in the sumptuary laws. Is it normal for level 3 characters to start having themselves some of that? Though it's an E6 setting and the SRD seems to suggest most things are out of budget - though a 1st or 0 level spell could actually be affordable (Robes of Resistance is only like 1k GP).

Characters in this sort of project like this are also kind of intended to be used in little stand-alone demo games to explore niche parts of the setting (in theory, wont happen in practice) so the stuff available might be relevant.

Anyway the question is, how do you guys spend down these budgets, if any?