How often will you get your bike stolen in Vancouver BC?

Vancouver leads the pack for bike commutes - Vancouver Sun
"Residents made 131,000 total cycling trips each day in 2015, according to the city’s survey."

Vancouver Police
"over 2000 bicyles are stolen in Vancouver every year."

With typical VPD efficiency (they can't even spell bicycle), we are informed that the number of bicycle thefts in Vancouver every year is greater than 2000, but less than infinity. So let's guess. They probably mean "reported stolen". Let's say that 20% of bicycle thefts are reported, and 10,000 bicycles are stolen every year. This makes the math easier anyway.

So. If each cyclist averages 1 trip every other day, there are 65500 cyclists. Let's say another 65500 people who never use their bikes.

So with 10,000 thefts per year, your bike gets stolen once every 13.1 years.

So theft costs you $7.60 a year on a $100 bicycle, $76 on A $1000 Bicycle. More expensive bikes are less likely to be stolen. However, the bikes that get stolen include bikes left unlocked, or locked with cable lock. Cable cutters cost $8.50 at Home Depot, and will go through a 1/4" cable in 1 snip. With a proper U-lock, your odds are much better.
Furthermore, some bicycles will be stolen from the home or from storage, rather than on a cycling trip. If you have a cheaper bike, and better security than average, you might go 30 years between thefts.

I don't include the theft of wheels, seats and accessories in the calculations. Obviously there are major assumption in the calculations.

One of my coworkers was killed cycling, which isn't statistically valid, but be careful out there!

Cycling into a grip like vice, more tails of chains, Bigfoot, and desperation in a frozen land - graphic content

Back in civilization, they have devices of torment called "Chain Breakers". That must be nice for them.

As implied earlier, here is a graphic image of the strange vice that is currently gripping my bigfoot chain, and knocking its pins out:

Bigfoot's chain is broken and it it isn't fixed, bad things will happen. So I use a vice, a screwdriver insert and a nut to do the same job of the city folk's fancy tool. It works well enough. Bigfoot was born around 2006 in Burnaby, British Columbia. She has been gathering dust of late, but now the permafrost has firmed up, it is time to ride from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! 

Advanced Heroquest in Castle RavenLoft Quick Reference Printable

Boots, ropes and chains

Here in Canada, the weather is usually too bad to walk to the trading post to buy cleats for your shoes. And if you order cleats, by the time they arrive you could have broken your neck and been eaten by timber wolves.

So, take a double length of sled dog chain, and tie it to your boot as shown. Remember to loop the parachute cord through your laces, or you will loose the chains.

Improved Lacing

A reef knot works better than the bow in the first picture. This works well in the snow, slush and refrozen slush. On sheet ice you would probably need spikes like the commercial versions:

Advanced Heroquest with Ravenloft Monsters - Map Generator

I have created Castle Ravenloft .tab files for the AHQ Map Generator:

This allows you to generate random Advanced Heroquest maps containing Ravenloft monsters. You use AHQ rules to fight them.

Copy the zip file into the "tables" directory and "extract here". "ravenlof1.tab,ravenlof2.tab,ravenlof3.tab" will be in the "tables" directory and you load one table on the "Tabellen Einlesen" menu option.

How it works:

I added this to monster.tab, it defines the kinds of Character Monsters:

Undead-Champion

(   1D12

    1-4     "Count Strahd von Zarovich (190 Gold Crowns)"

    5-8     "Young Vampire (160 Gold Crowns)"

    9-10    "Howling Hag (110 Gold Crowns)"

    11-12   "Klack (100 Gold Crowns)" & Monster-Magic-Treasure()

)

Undead-Champion-Monster

(   1D12

    1-4     "Flesh Golem (160 Gold Crowns)"

    5-8     "Gravestorm (180 Gold Crowns)"

    9-10    "Werewolf (150 Gold Crowns)"

    11-12   "Zombie Dragon (150 Gold Crowns)" & Monster-Magic-Treasure()

)

In undead.tab (I renamed it to raven.tab) I creat 2 kinds of Character Monsters, single and double:

Specialist-Monster

(   1D12

    1-2     Undead-Champion-Monster()

    3-4     Undead-Champion-Monster()

    5-6     Undead-Champion-Monster()

    7-8     Undead-Champion()

    9-9     Undead-Champion()

    10-12   Undead-Champion()

)

Specialist-Monster-Double

(   1D12

    1-2     Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

    3-4     Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

    5-6     Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

    7-8     Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

    9-9     Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

    10-12   Undead-Champion-Monster() & Undead-Champion() 

)

I add these to the Lairs-Matrix and Quest-Rooms-Matrix. Note that half the time you get one Character Monster, half the time double Character Monsters:

Quest-Rooms-Matrix

(   1D12

    1-1     "3 Skeletons, 4 Zombies (70 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    2-2     "3 Ghouls, 4 Zombies (80 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    3-3     "2 Skeletons, 3 Ghouls (100 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    4-4     "3 Gargoyles, 3 Zombies (80 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    5-5     "2 Gargoyles, 2 Skeletons, 2 Zombies (90 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    6-6     "1 Wraith, 4 Zombies (100 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster()

    7-7     "1 Wraith, 2 Zombies, 1 Skeleton (160 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

    8-8     "1 Gargoyles, 4 Skeletons (140 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

    9-9     "1 Gargoyles, 4 Zombies, 2 Ghouls (160 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

    10-10   "1 Wraith, 3 Skeletons (180 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

    11-11   "3 Gargoyles, 3 Skeletons, 3 Zombies (190 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

    12-12   "3 Skeletons, 3 Ghouls, 3 Kobold Skirmishers (200 Gold Crowns)" & Specialist-Monster-Double()

)

Wandering monsters are simply the names of the monsters:

Wandering-Monsters

(   1D12

    1-2     "3 Wolves (25 Gold Crowns)"

    3-4     "3 Ghouls (25 Gold Crowns)"

    5-6     "3 Kobold Skirmishers (35 Gold Crowns)"

    7-8     "3 Rat Swarms (20 Gold Crowns)"

    9-9     "3 Skeletons (20 Gold Crowns)"

    10-10   "3 Blazing Skeletons (25 Gold Crowns)"

    11-11   "3 Wraith (30 Gold Crowns)"

    12-12   "3 Zombies (25 Gold Crowns)"

)

Finally, the ravenlof.tab file refer to the custom files, monster.tab and raven.tab

# Castle Ravenloft 3

#-----------------------------------------

#

define ROOM-FURNISH

include raven\room3.tab

include standard\furnish.tab

include standard\hazard.tab

include terror\treasure.tab

include standard\trap.tab

include raven\monster.tab

include raven\raven.tab

Sample Adventure - "Keep the Dead in Their Graves"

Objective: (The program doesn't give you objectives, so pick one from Terror in the Dark Quest Plots) Keep the Dead in Their Graves: A Young Vampire has moved into an old tomb complex and is preparing to raise the dead as Undead. Kill him! (He is in 2 rooms, but you only need kill him once.)

 Castle Ravenloft 1

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

#1

3 Gargoyles, 3 Skeletons, 3 Zombies (190 Gold Crowns)

Flesh Golem (160 Gold Crowns)

Howling Hag (110 Gold Crowns)

100 Gold Crowns

#2

Fireplace

Hidden Treasure:

15 Gold Crowns

#3

1 Gargoyles, 4 Zombies, 2 Ghouls (160 Gold Crowns)

Werewolf (150 Gold Crowns)

Young Vampire (160 Gold Crowns)

Blade Venom Blackroot (Orcs, Goblins: W +1)

50 Gold Crowns

Jewel (150 Gold Crowns)

#4

Weapons Rack:

1 Sword

Hidden Treasure:

1 Dungeon-Counter

#8

Grate

1 Gargoyles, 4 Skeletons (140 Gold Crowns)

Flesh Golem (160 Gold Crowns)

Young Vampire (160 Gold Crowns)

Elven Power Bow (R 48, DD 6)

No Special Ability

Magic Potion of Strength

Hidden Treasure:

45 Gold Crowns

#6

3 Wolves (25 Gold Crowns)

#7

Trapdoor

Crossfire (Spot 8, Disarm 6)

(3 Damage Dice)

Hidden Treasure:

20 Gold Crowns


(This is just a 1 dungeon Quest. In room 7, I assume the treasure is under the trapdoor, but there is a Crossfire trap on the trapdoor)

Advanced Heroquest with Castle Ravenloft Monsters

All the monster miniatures in Advanced Heroquest are the same. Let's add 18 new miniatures from Castle Ravenloft, and give the Villains magical powers.

The Villains become AHQ Character Monsters. The other Ravenloft monsters replace the AHQ monsters.

Placing Monsters:

1. Wandering monsters are 3 random monsters (not Gargoyles) of the same kind.
2. Lairs have 5 random monsters and a 50% chance of a Villain.
3. Each Quest rooms has 8 random monsters, 1 Villain and a 50% chance of an extra Villain. The final Quest room in each Quest has all the surviving Villains.

Special Rules:

*SPECIAL RULES are on p48. Rats have *FLIGHT so they ignore Death Zones, they don't really fly. *FLIGHT is not the spell "Flight".
Rat Swarms may pass thru friends and enemies at no movement cost, since they just run between your legs. They must end their move on an empty square.
Wraiths may pass thru walls and doors at no movement cost, but may only enter explored squares. (They are Invulnerable and Fearsome since they are Ghosts, but have only 1 wound.)

Notes:

Kobold Skirmishers, Howling Hag and Klack are Sentries. The Spider has a ranged venom attack, Howling Hag has a ranged Howl and Zombie Dragon a ranged flame attack. Blazing Skeletons have the Flames of Death spell, naturally.
I made *LARGE MONSTERS tougher rather than having more wounds to keep track of. Gravestorm occupies 9 squares and has 4*3=12 Death Zone Squares. Flesh Golem and Zombie Dragon are as per p48, 4*2=8 Death Zone Squares. Gravestorm can't enter a corridor, since he doesn't fit.

Spells:

Some Monsters and most Villains get to use the spells from the Bright Wizard's Spell Book, giving them long range firepower. But they must pass an Intelligence test to cast each spell. If they fail the Intelligence test, their attack is over. Their spell components are unlimited. This means the Heroes have to come up with a different strategy for each room, which probably won't involve standing in the corridor.

Monster	WS	T	Sp	Int	W	DD H2H	DD Range	Range 1-3	Spells *SPECIAL RULE
Monsters
Blazing Skeleton	6	4	6	6	2	2			Flames of Death
Gargoyle	6	7	3	6	4	3
Ghoul	6	5	6	6	3	3
Kobold Skirmisher	6	7	11	6	3	3			Sentry
Rat Swarm	5	4	15	6	3	3			*FLIGHT
Skeleton	6	5	6	6	3	3
Spider	6	4	6	6	2	2	4	7
Wolf	7	6	11	6	3	3
Wraith	6	3	5	6	1	3			*INVULNERABLE *FEARSOME
Zombie	6	4	6	6	3	3			*CAUSE DISEASE
Villains
Count Strahd	10	8	8	8	6	5			Flight, *FEARSOME
Flesh Golem	7	9	4	6	6	6			*BERSERKER *LARGE
Gravestorm	8	9	6	6	6	5			Inferno of Doom *LARGE
Howling Hag	3	5	4	6	3	3	4	7	Flight, Sentry
Klack	4	5	6	6	4	4			Still air, Sentry
Werewolf	8	8	11	6	3	6			Flaming Hand
Young Vampire	8	8	8	6	6	6			Flight
Zombie Dragon	8	9	11	6	6	7	4	7	Dragon Armor *LARGE

I recommend my simplifications to eliminate the Combat lookup tables.

This makes a pleasant change from the single enemy skaven miniature, and Ravenloft can be had for about 40 USD, with 40 miniatures.
Substitute Ashardalon or Temple of Elemental Evil miniatures (make up your own stats) for a Chaos dungeon, Legend of Drizzt for an troll/elemental feel. You can probably mix the 4 games up for Greenskin/Chaos/Beastmen/Ogre/Undead dungeons. There are other spellbooks from Greywolf for your new Character monsters. Dark Magic looks good for Ravenloft.

If you don't have Advanced Heroquest:

1. Google the AHQ rulebook.
2. Download the 2-page rule summary.
3. Use the Ravenloft Hero and Monster miniatures.
4. AHQ has corridors 2 squares wide and 2 sizes of room. You could use cork tiles with squares drawn on them. And make cardboard doors.
5. Use the map generator program to create additional Quests.

Also, you can paint the monsters fairly quickly:

http://paintbrushheroes.blogspot.ca/2011/12/castle-ravenloft.html

Comment:

40 miniatures for $40 (used) is a good deal, and you get a Vampire Castle feel. There are many different kinds of monster, most with a spell or Special Ability which makes things a little more complex, but it makes combat more interesting.