This is a rather long one and the last in this particular Universe for a while, enjoy!

Admiral Alexis was... Bored... When the usual suspects called for an emergency meeting he expected another war, some sort of political snafu or maybe a major discovery that would require his input.
Once he learned how little was at stake he stopped really listening, as far as he's was concerned it was just about someone cheating at video games...
****************************** The War Games had first been introduced as a way to create camaraderie between the races and to have hard data on the strategies and capabilities of the different races.
The Noradons had been the only ones who participated along side the Humans.
Targeting locks would count as hits for space combat, smoke would be artillery explosions, low level electric batons would be used to simulate blades and good old paint balls for live ammunition.
The result was an overwhelming win for the Humans, the Noradons' new Overseer, Talon, was far too direct in his approach, the only victories he achieve were when he had superior numbers and never in defense scenarios.
He didn't care for traps, small deployment of troops, scouts, listening to his officers on the ground or any type of subterfuge.
The second was a more balanced affair, the Noradons had now far more specialist units and Talon had learned from his mistakes.
It was also a lot more popular, it wasn't viewed as a barbaric display of power like the first one but as a more violent sporting event.
Thou the second game was better remembered for the arrival of the A/O during the closing of the games.
****************************** The ceremony was finished, everyone was picking up their things and preparing to leave.
Kin son of Krono, host of the ceremony at the Commonwealth's HQ had the classic bartender's look that screamed: you don't have to go home but you can't stay here...
That is until Lawless contacted him.
A massive ship, dreadnought class from the tonnage, had just entered the system, it would be here in mere minutes.
Seeing how The Pale Horse and the Queen's Fury, the only known dreadnoughts, were already there this was worrisome to say the least.
He urged everyone to remain, not that anyone was going to leave now, this was exactly what the War Games were ultimately about: being ready when the time came to fight.
By the time the unknown ship emerged, the Combined fleet, the Noradons swarm along side the dozen or so ships of the Imphlasms were ready for anything, the Va'sh had stayed home.
Historians still wonder to this day what would have happened had they been present.
The ship was an odd mix of science and gardening gone wrong, an icosahedron with a power signature better measured in stars covered in moss and vines.
Admiral Alexis: “Identify yourself and your intentions”
Unknown Ship: “We are us, we wish to learn all there is to know”
Admiral Alexis: Huh, doesn't sound too bad
Unknown Ship: “We wish to be the only sentient races alive!”
Alexis: Ah, this would be the other shoe dropping, “We can help you with that first part but do not think we will just allow ourselves to be killed without a fight”
The Unknown Ship powered what looked like weapons
The fleets above Commonwealth HQ were ready for combat and spread out in loose formations, combat was about to be joined.
Than came from Commonwealth's Law a message sent on all frequencies
3.14: “Very well and than what?”
Unknown Ship: “... We would be safe and no other sentient beings would add needless variables to the grand equation”
3.14: Grand equation? Have we finally run into civilized alien lifeforms!?, “I assume the grand equation is a single mathematical formula that explains and predicts all things in the Universe?”
Unknown Ship sounding happy and not monotone for the first time: “Yes!”
3.14: “So your plan is to remove all sentient beings to make it safe and easier to calculate”
Unknown Ship: “Yes, that would be optimal”
3.14: “And you would just exist like that until the heat death of the Universe?”
Unknown Ship: “The what?”
Admiral Alexis was growing impatient, the Krush ambassador and the Ship had been talking astrophysics for two hours now, the Unknown Ship powered down their weapons into the first few minutes of this discussion and it was looking like there would be no fighting after all.
Unknown Ship: “I see, so no matter what, eventually all things would end”
3.14: “It is inevitable”
Unknown Ship: “Perhaps, perhaps not, we will think on how to prevent this, it is a far more grievous threat than any alien species consuming us”
3.14: “Yes that would be a worthy endeavor to occupy a mind like... Wait, eat you!?”
The threat of conflict over, proper introductions took place, the Ship was composed of two species: the moss and vines was a single plant entity and the ship itself a massive AI, the first true and somehow naturally occurring AI the galaxy had ever known.
They had met by accident, the plant life form floated into the hull of the AI on a small meteor and grew there, the AI could easily predict how it behaved, it liked the little plant and they formed a bond.
In their travels they intercepted Commonwealth transmissions.
The Plant accessed the holo-net and saw that every sentient species ate plants in some capacity, the AI saw the chaos some species were capable off.
They decided to strike first but upon learning how all would one day end shifted focus to finding a may to prevent it.
They were giving a name: Alpha for being first of their kind and Omega for their shared goal to see that the end never happens, A/O for short.
They chose to stay in orbit around Commonwealth HQ, doing nothing of note.
Sometimes the AI would discuss theories with the scientifically inclined races on how to prevent heat death and the Plant would have philosophical debates on what constitutes life with the more spiritual races.
****************************** Alexis sighed
That was then, this is now
Alexis looked at Ambassador Paul trying and failing to convince the others of the gravity of the situation.
“This could prove a huge security risk, we must find out who is doing this!”
Alexis had had enough
“No offense but finding out who is messing with the War Game's holo settings isn't much of a threat”
Paul: “The most likely scenario is that someone is interfering with the Games in order to make a large profits from the bets taking place, we must find who is doing this”
3.14: “I'm pretty sure only Humans would do such a thing”
He looks at the Admiral
“No offence”
Admiral Alexis: “None taken, I mean, who else thinks it's Humans?”
Lady EliIi: “No doubt”
Warlord M'rm'n: “Of course!”
Ambassador Uv: “Makes sense”
Lawless, the AI of the Commonwealth Law sat at this meeting, she was the referee of the Games
“It's Humans, there's no question about that”
Paul: Et tu Lawless? “Anyway, I have put top men in charge of finding out the truth”
3.14: “Who?”
Paul: “Top. Men”
****************************** Lord Doros was having a bad day, the Combined ambassador had contacted Transit concerning supposed hacking of the War Games.
Normally this would be well beneath the 12 Blades but their “failure” with the Diszin incident had allowed the ambassador to call in a favor, so to speak.
Lord Doros: Pretty sure we got the job as punishment.
He thought back to the morning's meeting
Boss: “... And so we have to find who is messing with the Games and why”
Everyone looked confused, Lord Doros was fuming...
Scout K'r's lifted his paw
“Not that I mind but killing someone over rigging games feels like going overboard”
G00.106 nods
Boss sighed
“We are not to kill anyone,we simply report our finding to the officials and arrest the individuals if we can”
The specialists in the room said nothing, the shock was total, this mission was not only something they should never have to do but they would have to operate like common... Cops.
Lord Doros had had enough
“So what's next? Trade disputes? Traffic control!?”
Boss: “I understand how you feel but Transit gave us the mission and we must obey”
Lord Doros: That was 5 hours ago, now we are on the Commonwealth Law, looking for “leads”
Smith was a professional, he was given a task and would complete it, no matter how absurd.
He was meeting with Lord Doros, K'r's and G00.106 in the Commonwealth's Law cafeteria, there were dozen of groups of different races all over the place, while most individuals who participated in the Games did not travel to Commonwealth HQ, many coaches, reporters and VIPs did.
Which is why Commonwealth Law was used as a safe meeting for these individuals.
The media to try to snag any exclusives they could, the VIPs to follow the games along side fellow VIPs and the coaches for the timed honored tradition of getting in the referees face when they had a complaint.
Lord Doros was already sitting at the meeting table
“So anything?”
Smith sat at the opposite side of the table and G00.106 stayed standing her back to the two.
Smith: “No luck so far, I talked with a few coaches and the odd VIP but they let nothing slip”
Lord Doros nodded, he himself had not found anything and given the levels of security involved he doubted anyone would.
“G00.106?”
G00.106 shrugged
“Not a damn thing, I even tried asking a few males while wearing nothing but lingerie like some of the girls onboard suggested but all I got were screams and a fine for..”
She reads her datapad to get it right
“... Creepy indecent exposure”
Smith had a horrifying mental image and shuddered.
Lord Doros shuddered a second later
“Thanks for sharing specialist Smith”
Smith: “Sorry, the image just, wait a second wouldn't you have gotten the same from G00.106 anyway?”
Lord Doros shakes his head
“Noradons are now all psychically linked to the Overseer at some level, you can't read one without listening in on all of them so it comes out as static”
Smith: “Very well... So i guess we have no leads to follow”
G00.106 was slightly insulted by the conversation that had just taken place but decided to move on
“So anyway, I doubt it was Noradons, we don't really do the whole crime thing”
Lord Doros nodded
Smith: “Has anyone seen K'r's? It's not his style to be late”
Lord Doros opened his eyes wide and looked up
Smith and G00.106 followed his gaze.
K'r's was sitting above them on a lamp, his green coat and pants were torn in places, his beret was missing, chunks of fur looked to have been ripped off and he had a thousand yard stare that spoke of unimaginable horrors.
Smith: “What the Hell happened to you!”
K'r's grabbed a flask from inside his coat, unscrewed the lid and took a sip
“Ran into Captain Grace”
He than took a much, much larger drink, never making eye contact.
Smith bit his fist and looked away.
G00.106 separated her arms, jumped into the pole holding the lamp and grabbed the Va'sh, cradling him like a new born larva and looked at Lord Doros
“Permission to take specialist K'r's to the ship for medical care!”
Lord Doros nodded solemnly
“Granted”
Smith and Lord Doros watched her run to their shuttle
Smith looked concerned
“Poor bastard...”
Smith than shifted to looking as chipper as ever
“So anyway, I doubt the Noradons had anything to do with the hacking, I mean there's no such thing as Noradons' organized crime after all”
****************************** Late at night, in the middle of the workers district of the Commonwealth Capital, a G00 unit wearing a brown trench coat and a black hat was slowly making her way to a bar.
She approached carefully, looking into every shadow and jumping at every noise, she had what looked like an Xmas gift in her hand.
The box was small and by the looks of it had been wrapped by a child... Or a really drunk adult.
She eventually gathered her courage and knocked on the bar's door, two fast knocks followed by two slower ones.
The door opened a tiny fraction, the “gift” was quickly exchanged for a grey bag of unknown content.
The G00 unit left, practically running.
Inside the bar the bouncer, a soldier Noradon, wearing a tuxedo and sunglasses made his way to the back.
He walked calmly, the sentients drinking and smoking paid him no attention besides the occasional nod, which he politely returned.
He entered the VIP room, Big Vinny, the proprietor of the establishment: the Carlito's Way, was sitting on his leather couch.
He was wearing a white suit with a matching ascot, a gold chain and a massive silver ring on his dorsal right hand.
Big Vinny was an engineering drone, smaller than the average Noradon to more easily get to tight places and with three digits per arm instead of claws to use precision tools.
Not that Big Vinny was small, he was overweight which to a Noradon with a perfectly genetically built gastric system was no small feat.
The bouncer, Tony, handed him the gift, bowed and left the room.
Vinny waited for Tony to leave before opening the package, inside was a box of chocolates, sixteen total.
He smiled
Best way to get a message without risk of it getting intercepted? Code it using foodstuffs.
He put the chocolates in order, the shapes symbolized the events taking place in the following days, the filling who would win and the individual wrapping's color the optimal spread.
He committed the information to memory and ate the evidence.
Taste like... Profits!
******************************** The Games had being a huge success so far, the Humans were leading by a razor thin margin.
The sabotage event was a surprise steal by the Imphlasms following the sudden rain that made Va'sh guards miss their approach until it was too late.
They than lost the retrieve and salvage mission to the Human team who won on a technicality
The Human field engineer was quoted saying:
“The rules said we had to get the ship back faster than the other team, never said nothing about it not exploding or having it's crew making it out alive”
Which was true, thou the rules would certainly see changes for the next Games.
This year marked the first time the War Games would shift from live exercises to holo-space recreations.
As such many more species joined this time around, most were out of the running by this time however.
The Humans lead by a single event, the Noradons were in second place, the Va'sh in third and the Impshlasms in fourth.
Today was the last four scheduled events: base defense, VIP assassination, survival on a Deathworld and the three-legged race, no one was certain how that last one ended up there...
The Noradons had pulled an upset on the base defense by outsmarting the human attackers, they used the molted exoskeleton of their soldier caste to have their engineers hold the front gate while the soldiers burrowed beneath the entrance and slaughtered the attackers in the resulting pitfall trap.
The VIP assassination had been won by the Va'sh, the human guards had a hard time pulling the trigger when they attacked and the Noradons and Imphlasm simply weren't fast enough.
Thou the moment a Human sniper managed to get his laser sight on the Va'sh VIP, which resulted in his guards accidentally mauling him to death, was considered a Pyrrhic victory.
Smith had been watching the whole thing from his now usual cafeteria table, not much to do when he had already spoken to anyone who allow him to get close to them.
I hope the others had better luck...
Lord Doros approached him and sat down
“I have managed to find no leads”
Smith didn't look at him, to anyone else watching, the Aaen had just whispered to himself.
Is the kitten doing okay?
Lord Doros: “He'll be out of med-bay in a day or so”
Smith gave a barely perceptible nod
G00.106 arrived at the table, she looked in a hurry
“I have a lead! What do you know of the Carlito's Way?”
Lord Doros and Smith looked at each-other nonplus
Smith adventured an answer
“... I don't like the ending I guess?”
G00.106 looked at him like he was an idiot
“What? No I'm talking about a bar in the Commonwealth Capital, Solenia”
She explained how one of her sisters from her hive back home contacted her, to let her know if she wanted in on a gambling scheme she was part of.
“I've made 4 times my initial bet so far!”
Was what she had told her.
G00.106: “My guess is that they're somehow behind the hacking, like the rain that costed the Va'sh the sabotage mission or the Humans weapon misfire when the Va'sh attacked their VIP”
Smith: “I don't think the weapons mis... Anyway, should we contact Lawless and check this bar out?”
Lord Doros: “Yes, this seems like a solid lead”
****************************** Smith, Lord Doros, G00.106 and Lawless made their way to the Carlito's Way.
Lawless insisted on joining the team, citing how as the referee of the Games it was her duty to see those who would defile it brought to justice, thou Smith thought the AI was probably just looking to get away from the incessant complaining from the coaches...
They found the bar with no issues, it had all the proper permits and all taxes were payed.
Lord Doros: “G00.106, you take point”
G00.106 hesitated
“Shouldn't Smith do it?”
Smith: “Normally yes, but you have an actual “in” with the crowd we are trying to infiltrate, I will enter with you as a friend looking to make some money, than”
He points at Lord Doros and Lawless
“They come in later as a couple looking for an out of the way place to have a quiet drink”
Lord Doros: “Anything goes wrong, we back you up”
Smith trying to be reassuring
“See, nothing to be worried about”
G00.106: “Right. Got it!”
She than kicks the door open and while holding her shortened carbine yells
“Nobody move! We know you're conducting illegal operations, you're all under arrest!!!”
Smith and Lord Doros thought at the same time
If we survive I'm killing her myself
Lawless grins, produces a kukri from under he coat and stands in front of G00.106.
The people at the bar barely seem to notice and quickly return to their drinks and talks.
Smith and Lord Doros reluctantly drew their pulse pistols, enter the bar and stood by their colleague.
Smith: “When we get back, if we get back, we need to talk about your infiltration skills”
G00.106: “Why?”
Before smith or Lord Doros could answer, or shoot her, the door in the back opens.
Big Vinny, with Tony in tow, appear.
Smith: What the Hell, a Noradon... Don!?
He seems very calm and he speaks softly as if to an old friend's kid he's trying to explain a complicated notion to.
“What, if may ask, is the reason for this loud and quite frankly disrespectful scene in this, my humble establishment?”
G00.106: “We know what you're doing and you're going to prison, if we don't kill you right now that is!”
Vinny undisturbed
“I find such a thing rather difficult without any evidence and for any threat against my person”
Vinny snaps his fingers
Half the bar draws weapons and Tony gets in front of his boss, the infiltration team is now outnumbered five to one
Vinny: “You will find it a... Difficult task”
Smith was curious, if he was going to die today he just had to ask
“Okay, what's with the outfit?”
Vinny, positively beaming
“You like it? I modelled it after Tony Montanas's suit in Scarface”
Smith, now less curious and more confused
“The movie?”
Vinny: “Yes, we like your “mafia”, quite a novel idea”
Lawless: “Yeah well, organize crime is nothing new and even if you get rid of us more will come”
Vinny: “Crime? What crime?”
G00.106: “You rigged the War Games and make bets on them, my sisters called me and told me all about it!”
Vinny got in front of Tony, he was frowning
“Did she tell you we were actually fixing the events?”
G00.106 seemed a lot less confident all of a sudden
“Well not in so many words, no”
The rest of the team looked at her and than at each-other
Vinny: “We have a group of ex-military professionals analyze the strategies of the teams and a Krush run the odds, than we place bets on events where the margin of error matches the betting spread”
Smith: “So you aren't the ones hacking the Games?”
Vinny genuinely surprised
“The Games are getting hacked!? Well, we have nothing to do with that, we're just honest mafiosy”
Smith still concerned and very aware of the multitude of guns pointed in their direction.
“You do know they're the bad guys right?”
Vinny: “Of course but that's because they break the law”
G00.106: “Ha! Like you don't”
Smith came to a horrible realization
“Lawless could you run a quick background check on the people here for outstanding warrants”
Lawless closed her eyes for a second, smiled awkwardly and sheathed her kukri.
“No criminal records, not even a ticket and they have permits for those guns”
Lord Doros: “It seems we made a mistake”
Vinny: “Quite so but don't worry, this was exhilarating! Rocco Two Hands had been itching for a reason to draw his guns”
Vinny waved at Rocco, who was standing behind Smith
Smith looked back expecting a Noradon with only two arms but what he saw was a Noradon drone with all of his arms and a backpack with another set of four mechanical ones allowing him to hold eight guns total, all aimed at his head.
Smith: “Rocco TWO hands?”
Vinny: “It's short for Two Sets of Hands, alright fellows put the hardware away, you're scaring the tourists”
At this the entire bar sat down and no one even looked at the four who now awkwardly sheathed and holstered weapons before leaving.
Vinny as he waves them good bye
“Arividerchi!”
The four walked in silence for a while until Lawless spoke
“This never happened, agreed?”
No one said anything, there was no need.
On the way back to Commonwealth Law Lord Doros got a message on his datapad
“We have a new mission”
****************************** Lawless was spectating the survival event of the games in the cafeteria.
We didn't find the culprits, we didn't even find how they did it... Thou given how they could have done much worse than add random shit I guess we should consider ourselves lucky.
A/O had joined the other VIPs, they were curious about how things would turn out.
He approached in his holographic avatar, a small crystal cube with a single leaf inside it.
“Greetings Lawless, are you enjoying the Games?”
Lawless: “Yes, kinda”
A/O: “Is there something not to your liking? I could modify the templates further”
Lawless stopped looking at the screen and turned to the floating cube
“I'm sorry, modify the templates further?”
The cube floated up and down, trying to imitate a nod
“Yes, we found the games too easy to predict, so we added semi-random events to make sure the Games remained interesting”
Lawless, was at a loss for words an entity that wanted to boil down all the universe to a single equation had somehow hacked into the Games to “spice things up”
She mulled over a few words, a couple of ideas and just... Gave up, they hadn't hurt anyone and at least they showed an interest. She resumed watching the screen.
“Just out of curiosity, are there any modifications to the current event?”
A/O: “Yes, in the next 12 seconds the tectonic plates where the teams are situated will begin to move”
Lawless: “An earthquake?”
A/O: “Correct”
Lawless: “... During the cooking portion of the event?”
A/O: “Is that a problem?”
Screaming and some really ingenious curses can be heard from the screen as holo projections of the teams catch fire, fall face first into their food or right into their makeshift cauldrons.
Lawless shrugs
“I guess not”
****************************** Captain Grace was on a mission, she was stalking a beautiful Va'sh, a white angora kitten wearing a butlers' outfit!
She applied some more scent blockers, checked her ceramic second skin under armor, activated noise cancellers on her boots and a camo-suit to become virtually undetectable.
The kitten took a turn into a cargo hold, she followed slowly and when she felt the Va'sh couldn't possibly dodge her, she jumped!
The hologram disappeared and the door locked behind her.
Before she could look behind, someone had put a bracelet on her right hand and in the time it took her to look at it an identical one was put on her left hand.
Grace: “What is the meaning of this!”
Smith and Lord Doros simply pointed up, to a viewing window
Grace looked up and paled, Admiral Alexis, Warlord M'r'm, Alisia Black, Lady EliIi, 3.14, Ambassador Paul and the Uv Ambassador were looking down at her.
Alexis: “Grace you have gone too far, consider this an intervention”
He pushed a button and the holographic butler kitten re-appeared.
Alexis: “This is a hard light construct of a real Va'sh, you have only one thing to do, pet the kitty”
Grace was scared but she acquiesced, not that she had a lot of choice...
All those watching winced
Lord Doros and Smith made it in time to catch the “petting”
Lord Doros: I heard the Human expression “there is more than one way to skin a cat”, I guess one of them is to let Captain Grace pet it...
After a couple of minutes Captain Grace stopped
“It's not the saMEEEEEE!”
An electric shock shot out from one bracelet to the other
Grace: “What the Hell was that!”
Admiral Alexis: “That was a mild shock, you will get hit by one every time you pet the Va'sh too hard”
Grace: “Mild shock!? Are you kidding me?”
Alexis, now looking quite angry
“No, this is no joke, now Pet. The. Kitty!”
A few hours and several thousand volts later
Captain Grace looked rough, her ponytail had come undone, actually quite a bit of her hair had curled and some of it was smoking.
She had a weird twitch on her left eye and as far as Admiral Alexis could tell she stopped blinking a while ago...
Alexis: “See, that wasn't so bad?”
Captain Grace in a monotone voice
“Yes, not so bad”
Warlord M'rm'n felt generous and removed his tricorne hat and offered his head to the Captain.
“Here”
Captain Grace hesitated but ultimately pet the Va'sh head, very gently
M'rm'n: “That was nice”
Captain Grace than began twitching uncontrollably and fell to the ground, hugging her knees
“pet the kitty, pet the kitty, pet the kitty...”
Everyone stared
Eventually Lady EliIi felt the need to say out loud what everyone was thinking
“We might have gone too far”
Warlord M'rm'n shrugged
“She got her hands on the Emperor nephew last week, the video of today's intervention should be enough for him to call the hit off”
Admiral Alexis looked at the Va'sh with a mixture of shock and anger
“You're kidding right?”
The Va'sh grinned and Admiral Alexis chose to assume it was a joke, Alisia Black knew better however...
Captain Grace spent a few days in the infirmary of her own ship and is now famous, rather than infamous, with Va'shs throughout known space!
The way she gives the softest pets and how she goes completely catatonic after has made her quite popular...

On Spells and Society, or how 5e spells completely change everyone's lives.

Today i have a confession to make: i'm a little bit of a minmaxer. And honestly, i think that's a pretty desirable trait in a DM. The minmaxer knows the rules, and exploits them to maximum efficiency.
"But wait, what does that have to do with spell use in society?" - someone, probably.
Well, the thing is that humans are absolutely all about minmaxing. There's a rule in the universe that reads "gas expands when hot", and suddenly we have steam engines (or something like that, i'm a political scientist not an engineer). A rule says 1+1 = 2, and suddenly we have calculus, computers and all kinds of digital stuff that runs on math. Sound is energy? Let's convert that shit into electricity, run it through a wire and turn it back into sound on the other side.
Bruh. Science is just minmaxing the laws of nature. Humanity in real life is just a big bunch of munchkins, and it should be no different in your setting.
And that is why minmaxing magic usage is something societies as a whole would do, specially with some notable spells. Today i will go in depth on how and why each of these notable mentions has a huge impact on a fantasy society.
We'll go from lowest level to highest, keeping in mind that the lower level a spell the more common it should be to find someone who has it, so often a level 2-3 spell will have more impact than a level 9 spell.

Mending (cantrip).
Repair anything in one minute. Your axe lost its edge? Tore your shirt? Just have someone Mend it.
Someone out there is crying "but wait! Not every village has a wizard!" and while that is true, keep in mind any High Elf knows a cantrip, as can any Variant Human.
A single "mender" could replace a lot of the work a smith, woodworker or seamstress does, freeing their time to only work on making new things rather than repair old ones.

Prestidigitation (cantrip).
Clean anything in six seconds. Committed axe murders until the axe got blunt, and now there's blood everywhere? Dog shit on your pillow out of spite? Someone walked all over the living room with muddy boots? Just Prestidigitate it away.
This may look like a small thing, but its actually huge when you apply it to laundry. Before washing machines were a thing housewives had to spend several hours a week washing them manually, and with Prestidigitation you can just hire someone to get it done in a few minutes.
A single "magic cleaner" can attend to several dozen homes, if not hundreds, thus freeing several hours of the time of dozens of women.
Fun fact: there's an interesting theory that says feminism only existed because of laundry machines and similar devices. Women found themselves having more free time, which they used to read and socialize. Educated women with more contacts made for easy organization of political movements, and the fact men were now able to do "the women's work" by pushing a button meant men were less opposed to losing their housewives' labor. Having specialized menders and magic cleaners could cause a comparable revolution in a fantasy setting, and help explain why women have a similar standing to men even in combat occupations such as adventuring.

Healing in general (1st-2nd level).
This one is fairly obvious. A commoner has 4 hit points, that means just about any spell is a full heal to the average person. That means most cuts, stab wounds, etc. can be solved by the resident cleric. Even broken bones that would leave you in bed for months can be solved in a matter of seconds as soon as the holy man arrives.
But that's nothing compared to the ability to cure diseases. While the only spell that can cure diseases is Lesser Restoration, which is second level, a paladin can do it much more easily with just a Lay on Hands. This means if one or two people catch a disease it can just be eradicated with a touch.
However doing that comes with a cost. If everyone is instantly expunged of illness, the populace does not build up their immune systems. Regular disease becomes less common, sure, but whenever it is reintroduced (by, say, immigrants or contact with less civilized humanoids) it can spread like wildfire, afflicting people so fast that no amount of healers will have the magic juice to deal with it.
Diseases become rare, plagues become common.

Continual Flame (2nd).
Ok, this one is a topic i love and could easily be its own post.
There's an article called "Why the Falling Cost of Light Matters", which goes in detail about how man went from chopping wood for fire, to using animal fat for candles, then other oils, whale oil, kerosene, then finally incandescent light bulbs, and more recently LED lights. Each of these leaps is orders of grandeur more efficient than the previous one, to the point that the cost of light today is about 500,000 times cheaper than it was for for a caveman. And until the early 1900s the only way mankind knew of making light was to set things on fire.
Continual Flame on the other hand allows you to turn 50gp worth of rubies and a 2nd level spell slot into a torch that burns forever. In a society that spends 60 hours of labor to be able to generate 140 minutes of light, this is a huge game changer.
This single spell, which i am 99% sure was just created as an excuse for why the dungeon is lit despite going for centuries without maintenance, allows you to have things like public lighting. Even if you only add a new "torchpost" every other week or month sooner or later you'll be left with a neatly lit city, specially if the city has had thousands of years in which to gather the rubies and light them up.
And because the demand of rubies becomes so important, consider how governments would react. Lighting the streets is a public service, if its strategically relevant to make the city safer at night, would that not warrant some restrictions on ruby sales? Perhaps even banning the use of rubies in jewelry?
Trivia: John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in history, gained his wealth selling kerosene. Kerosene at the time was used to light lamps. Gasoline was invented much later, when Rockefeller tasked a bunch of scientists to come up with a use for some byproducts of the kerosene production. This illustrates how much money is to be had in the lighting industry, and you could even have your own Rockefeller ruby baron in your game. I shall call him... Dohn J. Stonebreaker. Perfect name for a mining entrepreneur.
Whether the ruby trade ends up a monopoly under the direct supervision of the king or a free market, do keep in mind that Continual Flame is by far the most efficient way of creating light.

Gentle Repose (2nd).
Cast it on a corpse, and it stays preserved for 10 days.
This has many potential uses, from preserving foodstuffs (hey, some rare meats are expensive enough to warrant it) to keeping the bodies of old rulers preserved. Even if a ruler died of old age and cannot be resurrected, the body could be kept "fresh" out of respect/ceremony. Besides, it keeps the corpse from becoming undead.

Skywrite (2nd).
Ok, this one is mostly a gag. While the spell can be used by officials to make official announcements to the populace, such as new laws or important news, i like to just use it for spam. I mean, its a ritual spell that writes a message on the sky; what else would people use it for?
Imagine you show up in a city, and there's half a dozen clouds reading "buy at X, we have what you need", "get your farming supplies over at Joe's store" or "vote Y for the city council".
The possibilities are endless, and there's no way the players can expect it. Just keep in mind that by RAW the spell can only do words, meaning no images. No Patrick, "8===D" is not a word.

Zone of Truth (2nd).
This one is too obvious. Put all suspects of a crime into a ZoT, wait a couple minutes to make sure they fail the save, then ask each one if he did it. Sure its not a perfect system, things like the Ring of Mind Shielding still exist, but it's got a better chance of getting the right guy than most medieval justice systems. And probably more than a few contemporary ones. All while taking only a fraction of the time.
More importantly, with all the average crimes being handled instantly, the guards and investigators have more time to properly investigate the more unusual crimes that might actually involve a Thought Shield, Ring of Mind Shielding or a level 17 Mastermind.
There is a human rights argument against messing with people's minds in any way, which is why this may not be practiced in every kingdom. But there are definitely some more lawful societies that would use ZoT on just about every crime.
Why swear to speak the truth and nothing but the truth when you can just stand in a zone of truth?
Another interesting use for ZoT is oaths. When someone is appointed into an office, gets to a high rank in the military or a guild, just put them in a ZoT while they make their oath to stand for the organization's values and yadda yadda. Of course they can be corrupted later on, but at least you make sure they're honest when they are sworn in.

Sending (3rd).
Sending is busted in so many ways.
The more "vanilla" use of it is to just communicate over long distances. We all know that information is important, and that sometimes getting information a whole day ahead can lead to a 40% return on a massive two-year investment. Being able to know of invasions, monsters, disasters, etc. without waiting days or weeks for a courier can be vital for the survival of a nation. Another notable example is that one dude who ran super fast for a while to be the first to tell his side of a recent event.
But the real broken thing here is... Sending can Send to any creature, on any plane; the only restriction being "with which you are familiar". In D&D dead people just get sent to one of the afterlife planes, meaning that talking to your dead grandfather would be as simple as Sending to him. Settling inheritance disputes was never easier!
Before moving on to the next point let me ask you something: Is a cleric familiar with his god? Is a warlock familiar with his patron?

Speak With Dead (3rd).
Much like Sending, this lets you easily settle disputes. Is the senate/council arguing over a controversial topic? Just ask the beloved hero or ruler from 200 years ago what he thinks on the subject. As long his skeleton still has a jaw (or if he has been kept in Gentle Repose), he can answer.
This can also be used to ask people who killed them, except murderers also know this. Plan on killing someone? Accidentally killed someone? Make sure to inutilize the jaw. Its either that, being so stealthy the victim can't identify you, or being caught.

Note on spell availability.
Oh boy. No world-altering 4th level spells for some reason, and suddenly we're playing with the big boys now.
Spells up to 3rd level are what I'd consider "somewhat accessible", and can be arranged for a fee even for regular citizens. For instance the vanilla Priest statblock (MM348) is a 5th level cleric, and the standard vanilla Druid (MM346) a 4th level druid.
Spells of 5th level onward will be considered something only the top 1% is able to afford, or large organizations such as guilds, temples or government.

Dream (5th).
I was originally going to put Dream along with Sending and Telepathy as "long range communication", but decided against it due to each of them having unique uses.
And when it comes to Dream, it has the unique ability of allowing you to put your 8 hours of sleep to good use. A tutor could hire someone to cast Dream on him, thus allowing him to teach his student for 8 hours at any distance. This is a way you could even access hermits that live in the middle of nowhere or in secluded monasteries. Very wealthy families or rulers would be willing to pay a good amount of money to make sure their heirs get that extra bit of education.
Its like online classes, but while you sleep!
Another interesting use is for cheating. Know a princess or queen you like? She likes you back? Her dad put 400 trained soldiers between you? No problemo! Just find a 9th level Bard, Warlock or Wizard, but who am i kidding, of course it'll be a bard. And that bard is probably you. Now you have 8 hours to do whatever you want, and no physical evidence will be left.

Raise Dead (5th).
Few things matter more in life than death. And the ability to resurrect people has a huge impact on society. The impact is so huge that this topic needs topics of its own.
First, diamond monopoly. Remember what i said about how Continual Flame would lead to controlled ruby sales due to its strategic value? This is the same principle, but a hundred times stronger. Resurrection is a huge strategic resource. It makes assassinations harder, can be used to bring back your officials or highest level soldiers over and over during a war, etc. This means more authoritarian regimes would do everything within their power to control the supply and stock of diamonds. Which in turn means if anyone wants to have someone resurrected, even in times of peace, they'll need to call in a favor, do a quest, grease some hands...
Second, resurrection insurance. People hate risks. That's why insurance is such a huge industry, taking up about 15% of the US GDP. People insure their cars, houses... even their lives. Resurrection just means "life insurance" is taken more literally. This makes even more sense when you consider how expensive resurrection is: nobody can afford it in one go, but if you pay a little every month or year you can save up enough to have it done when the need arises.
This is generally incompatible with the idea of a State-run monopoly over diamonds, but that just means different countries within a setting can take different approaches.
To make things easier, i even used some microeconomics to make a sheet in my personal random generators to calculate the price of such a service. Just head to the "Insurance" tab and fill in the information relative to your setting.
With actual life insurance resurrection can cost as little as 5gp a year for humans or 8sp a year for elves, making resurrection way more affordable than it looks.
Also, do you know why pirates wore a single gold earring? It was so that if your body washes up on the shore whoever finds it can use the money to arrange a proper burial. Sure there's a risk of the finder taking it and walking away, but the pirates did it anyway. With resurrection in play, might as well just wear a diamond earring instead and hope the finder is nice enough to bring you back.
I got so carried away with the whole insurance thing i almost forgot: the possibility of resurrection also changes how murders are committed.
If you want someone dead but resurrection exists, you have to remove the vital organs. Decapitation would be far more common. Sure resurrection is still possible, but it requires higher level spells or Reincarnate, which has... quirks.
As a result it should be very obvious when someone was killed by accident or an overreaction, and when someone was specifically out to kill the victim.

Scrying (5th).
This one is somewhat obvious, in that everyone and their mother knows it helps finding people. But who needs finding? Well, that would be those who are hiding.
The main use i see for this spell, by far, is locating escaped criminals. Just collect a sample of hair or blood when arresting someone (or shipping them to hard labor which is way smarter), and if they escape you'll be almost guaranteed to successfully scry on them.
A similar concept to this is seen in the Dragon Age series. If you're a mage the paladins keep a sample of your blood in something called a phylactery, and that can be used to track you down. There's even a quest or two about mages trying to destroy their phylacteries before escaping.
Similarly, if you plan a jailbreak it would be highly beneficial to destroy the blood/hair sample first. As a matter of fact i can even see a thieves guild hiring a low level party to take out the sample while the professional infiltrators get the prisoner out. Keep in mind both events must be done at the same time, otherwise the guards will just collect a new sample or would have already taken it to the wizard.
But guards aren't the only ones with resources. A loan shark could keep blood samples of his debtors, a mobster can keep one of those who owe him favors, etc. And the blood is ceremoniously returned only when the debt is fully paid.

Teleportation Circle (5th), Transport Via Plants (6th).
In other words, long range teleportation. This is such a huge thing that it is hard to properly explain how important it is.
Teleportation Circle creates a 10ft. circle, and everyone has one round to get in and appear on the target location. Assuming 30ft. movement that means you can get 192 people through, which is a lot of potential merchants going across any distance. Or 672 people dashing.
Math note: A 30ft radius square around a 10ft. diameter square, minus the 4 original squares. Or [(6*2+2)^2]-4 squares of 5ft. each. Hence 192 people.
Getting hundreds of merchants, workers, soldiers, etc. across any distance is nothing to scoff at. In fact, it could help explain why PHB item prices are so standardized: Arbitrage is so easy and cheap that price differences across multiple markets become negligible. Unless of course countries start setting up tax collectors outside of the permanent teleportation circles in order to charge tariffs.
Transport Via Plants does something very similar but it requires 5ft of movement to go through, which means less people can be teleported. On the other hand it doesn't burn 50gp and can take you to any tree the druid is familiar with, making it nearly impossible for tax collectors to be waiting on the other side. Unfortunately druids tend to be a lot less willing to aid smugglers, so your best bet might be a bard using spells that don't belong to his list.
With these methods of long range teleportation not only does trade get easier, but it also becomes possible to colonize or inhabit far away places. For instance if someone finds a gold mine in the antarctic you could set up a mine and bring food and other supplies via teleportation.

Major Image (6th level slot).
Major Image is a 3rd level spell that creates an illusion over a 20ft cube, complete with image, sound, smell and temperature. When cast with a 6th level slot or higher, it lasts indefinitely.
That my friends, is a huge spell. Why get the world's best painter to decorate the ceiling of your cathedral when you can just get an illusion made in six seconds?
The uses for decorating large buildings is already good, but remember: we're not restricted to sight.
Cast this on a room and it'll always be cool and smell nice. Inns would love that, as would anyone who always sleeps or works in the same room. Desert cities have never been so chill.
You can even use an illusion to make the front of your shop seem flashier, while hollering on loop to bring customers in.
The only limit to this spell is your imagination, though I'm pretty sure it was originally made just to hide secret passages.
Trivia: the ki-rin (VGM163) can cast Major Image as a 6th level spell, at will. It's probably meant to give them fabulous lairs yet all it takes is someone doing the holy horsey a big favor, and it could enchant the whole city in a few hours. Shiniest city on the planet, always at a nice temperature and with a fragrance of lilac, gooseberries or whatever you want.

Simulacrum (7th).
Spend 12 hours and 1500gp worth of ruby dust, and get a clone of yourself. Notably, each caster can only have one simulacrum, regardless of who the person he cloned is.
How this changes the world? By allowing the rich and powerful to be in two places at once. Kings now have a perfect impersonator who thinks just like them. A wealthy banker can run two branches of his company. Etc.
This makes life much easier, but also competes with Continual Flame over resources.
It also gives "go fuck yourself" a whole new meaning, making the sentence a valid Suggestion.

Clone (8th).
If there's one spell i despise, its Clone.
Wizard-only preemptive resurrection. Touch spell, costs 1.000gp worth of diamonds each time, takes 120 days to come into effect, and creates a copy of the creature that the soul occupies if the original dies. Oh, and the copy can be made younger.
Why is it so despicable? Because it makes people effectively immortal. Accidents and assassinations just get you sent to the clone, and old age can be forever delayed because you keep going back to younger versions of yourself. Being a touch spell means the wizard can cast it on anyone he wants.
In other words: high level wizards, and only wizards, get to make anyone immortal.
That means wizards will inevitably rule any world in which this spell exists.
Think about it. Rulers want to live forever. Wizards can make you live forever. Wizards want other stuff, which you must give them if you want to continue being Cloned. Rulers who refuse this deal eventually die, rulers who accept stick around forever. Natural selection makes it so that eventually the only rulers left are those who sold their soul to wizards. Figuratively, i hope.
The fact that there are only a handful of wizards out there who are high enough level to cast the spell means its easier for them organize and/or form a cartel or union (cartels/unions are easier to maintain the fewer suppliers are involved).
This leads to a dystopian scenario where mages rule, kings are authoritarian pawns and nobody else has a say in anything. Honestly it would make for a fun campaign in and of itself, but unless that's specifically what you're going for it'll just derail everything else.
Oh, and Clone also means any and all liches are absolute idiots. Liches are people who turned themselves into undead abominations in order to gain eternal life at the cost of having to feed on souls. They're all able to cast 9th level wizard spells, so why not just cast an 8th level one and keep undeath away? Saves you the trouble of going after souls, and you keep the ability to enjoy food or a day in the sun.

Demiplane (8th).
Your own 30ft. room of nothingness. Perfect place for storage and a DM's nightmare given how once players have access to it they'll just start looting furniture and such. Oh the horror.
But alas, infinite storage is not the reason this is a broken spell. No sir.
Remember: you can access someone else's demiplane. That means a caster in city 1 can put things into a demiplane, and a caster in city 2 can pull them out of any surface.
But wait, there's more! There's nothing anywhere saying you can't have two doors to the same demiplane open at once. Now you're effectively opening a portal between two places, which stays open for a whole hour.
But wait, there's even more! Anyone from any plane can open a door to your neat little demiplane. Now we can get multiple casters from multiple planes connecting all of those places, for one hour. Sure this is a very expensive thing to do since you're having to coordinate multiple high level individuals in different planes, but the payoff is just as high. We're talking about potential integration between the most varied markets imaginable, few things in the multiverse are more valuable or profitable. Its a do-it-yourself Sigil.
One little plot hook i like about demiplanes is abandoned/inactive ones. Old wizard/warlock died, and nobody knows how to access his demiplanes. Because he's at least level 15 you just know there's some good stuff in there, but nobody can get to it. Now the players have to find a journal, diary, stored memory or any other way of knowing enough about the demiplane to access it.

True Polymorph (9th).
True Polymorph. The spell that can turn any race into any other race, or object. And vice-versa. You can go full fairy godmother and turn mice into horses. For a spell that can change anything about one's body it would not be an unusual ruling to say it can change one's sex. At the very least it can turn a man into a chair, and the chair into a woman (or vice-versa of course).
But honestly, that's just the tip of the True Polymorph iceberg. Just read this more carefully:
> You transform the creature into a different creature, the creature into a nonmagical object, or the object into a creature
This means you can turn a rock or twig into a human. A fully functional human with, as far as the rules go, a soul. You can create life.
But wait, there's more! Nothing there says you have to turn the target into a known creature on an existing creature. The narcissist bard wants to create a whole race of people who look like him? True Polymorph. A player wants to play a weird ass homebrew race and you have no idea how it would fit into the setting? True Polymorph. Wizard needs a way to quickly populate a kingdom and doesn't want to wait decades for the subjects to grow up? True Polymorph. Warlock must provide his patron 100 souls in order to free his own? True Polymorph. The sorcerer wants to do something cool? Fuck that guy, sorcerers don't get any of the fun high level spells; True Poly is available to literally every arcane caster but the sorcerer.
Note: what good is Twinned Spell if all the high level twinnable spells have been specifically made unavailable to sorcerers?
Do keep in mind however that this brings a whole new discussion on human rights. Does a table have rights? Does it have rights after being turned into a living thing? If it had an owner, is it now a slave? Your country will need so many new laws, just to deal with this one spell.
People often say that high level wizards are deities for all intents and purposes. This is the utmost proof of that. Clerics don't get to create life out of thin air, wizards do. The cleric worships a deity, the wizard is the deity.

Conclusion.
Intelligent creatures not only can game the system, but it is entirely in character for them to do so. I'll even argue that if humanoids don't use magic to improve their lives when it's available, you're pushing the suspension of disbelief.
With this post i hope to have helped you make more complex and realistic societies, as well as provide a few interesting and unusual plot hooks
Lastly, as much as i hate comment begging i must admit i am eager to see what spells other players think can completely change the world. Because at the end of the day we all know that extra d6 damage is not what causes empires to rise and fall, its the utility spells that make the best stories.

Edit: Added spell level to all spells, and would like to thank u/kaul_field for helping with finishing touches and being overall a great mod.

GTA Online Casino Inside Track Horse Racing glitch SOLO works for PC (maybe XBOX AND PS4 as well?)

Top Betting Mistakes

1) Failure to Use Betting Banks
Most gamblers fail to understand that the best method of achieving a healthy and sustained long term profit from racing is to set aside a sum of money away from your main finances, solely for the betting of horses. Whatever method or system you are using, whoever you are following or subscribing to or however your own bets are calculated, you are better off with a "Betting Bank" that has built -in advantages that can help you. It needs to be independent from your own personal finances and needs to be protected from factors that can threaten it. This can take a lot of emotion out of the decision making process. Emotion is a factor that threatens all punters. The size of your betting bank will of course be dependent upon your own individual circumstances and free capital available.
An analogy to the world of shares perhaps may be that no financial advisor worth his salt would advise you throw all your capital into the stock market alone. The vast majority of punters fail to use any form of set aside bank. They bet randomly with what ever money they have in their pocket at the end of the week or go in too deep with stakes far in excess of their personal safety levels. A punter with a professional attitude will set aside what he can comfortably afford to invest and then determine the best use he can make of that fixed sum of capital. With a fixed sum of capital available you now move on to the next reason for failure.
2) Failure to Stake Correctly
It is vital that you consider your betting bank as capped in amount. You do not have an endless pool of resources to dip into. Betting by its nature carries inherent risks. These risks include periods of low strike rates and long losing runs. Your betting bank and staking should be adapted for the method you use. You must in advance, prepare yourself for the possibility of a worse than average sequence of losers through adoption of a sufficient number of units in your betting bank. Correct methodical staking in addition to the mathematical advantage, can also help overcome the risk of emotional reaction to a sequence of unusually positive or negative results. Take the Pricewise column in the racing post as an example.
Long term if you could get on at the advised prices, it would have returned a decent profit overall. During this time however followers would have to have endured runs of up to 40 losers in a row! Despite the overall long term profit I suspect the vast majority of Pricewise followers would have been terminated either by a failure to set aside a sufficient amount of points or through failure to cope with the emotion of the losing run. We have long since established here a strike rate of about 35% on our Best Bet selections and at an average S.P. of over 5/2 for each winning bet.
We feel able to protect clients banks as long losing runs haven't happened and the strike rate and odds have been more than enough to ensure long steady and safe growth for your betting profits. That is in essence the key to winning money. Manage your accounts in a way that protects them as far as possible from the element of risk that the game presents you.
3) Chasing Losses
Chasing losses at first sight may appear to be an easy way to guarantee an eventual profit but the true story is it is a game for fools and statistically will not work unless you generate an overall level stakes profit. Chasing losses is a game for the ill informed who do not want to make the effort to seek value in their bets. Bookmakers have to price up every race. Punters don't have to play in every race, they can pick the races they want to bet in,and that is the main edge that people fail to understand.
If you have had a losing day, by attempting to chasing your losses you give up that advantage and bet in the races that you should not be betting in. You are therefore betting the way bookmakers want you to and not in the way to win. Many punters will alter their stakes in the last race either to "chase" losses or "play up" winnings. Its no coincidence that the bookmakers have ensured that the last race on each day is often a handicap or one of the hardest races that day. There will be more racing the next day and the day after that.
The secret is waiting for opportunities and only betting when you know you have circumstances which favour you and not the bookmakers. You must never change your approach, or deviate from sensible staking as there is no such things as "The Last Race".
4) Lack of Value Appreciation
Appreciation of "value" in a bet is core to long term success. To profit over a long series of bets you must be betting at odds greater than the true chance of winning your selection have. To do this however over the long term, you need to concentrate on each race individually and seek the value bet in that race. There is value to be had in every race. The key to it is understanding where that value is. Many times a punter will screw up a losing betting slip and say "At least I had some value".
There is absolutely NO relationship between value and prices. A 33/1 chance may be diabolical value yet a very short priced favorite may be supreme value. It does not follow that the bigger the price you take the better "value" you have. The value is sometimes clear but more often well hidden and it takes a trained eye to see that. Everyone has this "Foresight" on occasions, it is a game about opinions after all and nobody is always right or wrong. Value can be the most expensive word in racing if you can't bet winner. The old cliche is that value is about betting a horse whose true chance is better than its price reflects.
That's only a small part of it. You also have to make sure that you bet in the right way and in the right races as that is the only way you can keep strike rates high and protect a betting bank. You should continually strive to increase value in your bets. Once you have a selection you feel is value do not just take the first acceptable price that comes along. Seek to improve it by shopping around the various bookmakers or try and top the best bookmakers price by looking to the betting exchanges. Marginal improvements on odds on each bet you make can have a dramatic effect on long term profits.
5) Greed For Instant Wealth
Many punters seek the thrill of a life changing bet that will produce huge gains of instant wealth for a small outlay. Bookmakers play on your natural desire and go out of their way to encourage you to bet exotic multiple selection bets that can in one hit, turn a small stake into a large sum. Professionals however rarely bet in multiples. Most professionals bet singles and steer away from the multiple bets. Bookmakers relentlessly promote a host of multiple bets with exotic names such as Yankee, Lucky 15, and Goliath.
The reason they are heavily touted is the profit margin in the bookmaker's favour increases the more selections you add to your multiple bet. Say you select any random 5/1 selection. If you bet this as a single the bookmaker may have a theoretical edge in his favor of 15%. Taking two such selections however and betting them in a win double, the bookmakers profit margin rises to about 30% ! Yes your win double can produce a much bigger win from the same stake however over the long term the bookmaker is eating away at your capital at a much faster rate.
It is a waste of time debating which type of multiple bet is 'best'. Unless your prediction skills are supernatural or you are incredibly lucky, then betting in singles is more often the best option. You may say that many "Pros," do bet in multiples in bets like The Scoop 6 or the Jackpot, but that's only because they know there is plenty of "Dead" money in any given Pool and they are betting against people who don't understand the dynamics of those types of bet. There are times you should bet in multiples but in truth they are few and far between.
You can't approach this as a "Get Rich Quick " scheme. It is a long slow process of serious and sustained profit and not a game for Get Rich Quick schemers. If you go Into any Betting shop, have a look at all the posters on the wall offering "special offers", "enhanced terms " and "bonus offers". You will see they are all multiple bets. Bookmakers want you betting in multiples and it is easy to see why. They carve most profit from them. You never see a Bookmakers promotion offering extra's on a win or each way single. Ask yourself why.

Terror Birds

Audio Verson
GM Binder
"I have nothing but respect for Terror Birds because the moment you don't, you're bird food." - Tannon Elven Ranger

Introduction

Terror Birds are a broader category of an ancient line of 2 legged flightless birds. Many varieties such as Diatryma, Gastornis, and Titanis are well known and feared animals in the remote areas they inhabit. These birds are often ignored or overlooked for their predecessors, the dinosaurs. I'm here to rectify that problem as Terror Birds are fascinating creatures I've found in my many years of research. Their bravery or stupidity is unmatched, yet they surprise even the most prepared of opponents. They are also wonderfully affectionate to those they trust and great friends. Just don't be on the opposing side, or you'll see where they get the name Terror Bird.

Physiology of the Terror Bird

How to Identify the Terror Birds

Most are familiar with emus, ostriches, or more modern bipedal birds. But remote pockets of the world house some of the most terrifying and ancient varieties. There are several sub-species of Terror birds that range from 3-feet tall to a massive 15 feet. Their wings are small and tucked to their sides, even more so than a chicken. Their thick muscled legs with long talons are more than enough to show the power they possess. Their necks are proportionally much thicker than their ostrich cousins, and their beaks are that of a predator.
Males are brightly colored, whereas females will have the same colors but muted. For instance, the smaller 3 foot tall, Caprims, both are red and black in coloration to hide in the shadows and look like a flower in their jungle homes. The females are just still black, but their red is only slightly muted. Males also have crest feathers that they can lift but usually keep pursed backward unless interacting with their mate.

Origins

When the majority of dinosaurs left the Material Plane, obviously aside from the remaining dinosaur islands, birds filled the niche of super predators for a short time. Birds are closely related to dinosaurs and thus quickly adapted to the same super-predators, although arguably much smaller than that of creatures like Allosaurus or Tyrannosaurus Rex. Since then, their direct competition of large cats, however, has dwindled their numbers. Leave it to a cat to keep a bird in check.

Hooked Beaks

The beaks of Terror Birds resemble something closer to raptors (bird raptors) like eagles and Rocs. The wicked spike that the end of their beak forms is excellent for pulling off large chunks of flesh while eating. Though, their bigger purpose is paired with their incredible ability to thrust their heads downward at a quick speed with accuracy and puncture prey. Using the hook as the pointy side of a pick, they can sever the spine of even large creatures such as bears in as little as 2 pecks. Very few animals can kill so efficiently and quickly, something their size or larger, even dragons.

Killer Legs

Terror birds are fast runners with stamina. Their thick legs give them incredible power and speed. They can run down prey, attackers, or about anything if needed at rates close to 40 mph. While they can't maintain this speed for more than a few hundred yards, they can run at 15 mph for much longer distances, making them excellent for long-distance travel.
On top of their astonishing speed is their agility. Their legs are positioned more towards the bottoms of their hips than the sides, and with the added rotation of ball socket joints, they can make quick leg pivots. While they can't be at top speeds to make sharp adjustments, it's faster than even antelope. Their sharp claws can dig into the earth for traction on a quick turn, giving them a slight edge on adjusting direction.
Lastly, with their backward bending legs and stiff muscles, they can jump with incredible power. While this ability diminishes with body size, even the largest Terror Birds can jump 2 1/2 times their height. They flap their small wings fervently when doing so, not enough to create lift but enough to slow their fall. This flapping slow-fall is less effective than that of a chicken but the same concept. Their jumping is also well suited to distance if needed, making jumping large streams or even small rivers a great way to corner prey.

Eyes of a Killer

Terror Birds have exceptional eyesight in both light and dark, with their heavily dilating pupils. Their eyes are also huge in general to head size about 25% larger than an eagle's eye to head size ratio. They are also forward-facing, giving them that deadly accuracy. Because their eyes can move in their head, they also possess tremendous peripheral vision.

Hunting and Feeding

Terror Birds are carnivores; well, most are. They watch their territory for prey and when hungry bolt in pursuit. Once a victim runs, they can easily catch them by grabbing them, with their beaks, if small enough, or quickly killing bigger prey. Their favorite tactic is to run beside a fleeing animal and slam their hooked beak into the skull base, downing the creature immediately. Their beaks are strong enough to crush through the skull of a human, making a quick and easy meal.
Once they have slain a creature, they will begin to strip off flesh to eat. Terror Birds are not fond of eating fur or hair, though, and will usually peel the skin away to get to the more tender areas. However, it isn't possible to always avoid fur and hair on creatures. They can process the hair but not as easily and often causes stomach discomfort. Once they've eaten their fill, they either leave the food for scavengers or drag it back to young.
With smaller prey, often, they snatch up the poor creatures instead of quickly killing them. Often they will violently and repetitively slam their target on the ground, either killing or stunning them. They are also mighty kickers and can crush bones with a single blow.

Life Cycle

Chicks are hatched only 1 egg at a time. Once they hatch, it is only a span of a few seasons before they strike out on their own. Their parents both care for the chick until full maturity. Once grown, they are about half to nearly full size, depending on the kind of Terror Bird.
Adults live around 40 years and start to show signs of significant degradation at 37. While slower and less capable at venerable ages, Terror Birds are still scrappy fighters able to fend off attackers well enough. During this time, they may produce as many as 2 dozen chicks, but sadly only 1/3rd of those chicks will live to adulthood in most cases.

Common Diseases

Terror Birds are affected by only a few diseases, but most are fatal. Those who raise terror birds often have to quarantine and even kill infected birds to keep the rest safe. Thankfully they are not widespread in any area, and if caught early enough simple medicine, and divine intervention can save the animal.

Pox

While Pox to many other creatures is a deadly and contagious disease, humans included. Terror Birds can be an early specimen, as they pick it up from eating prey infected with the virus. Pox is spread by parasites such as flies and lice that can be found on less fortunate birds. Adults start to lose feathers in patches, but chicks outright perish after only a few weeks.

Bleeding Egg

As some varieties of Terror Birds produce regular eggs as decoys, it's easy to spot an infected bird with Bleeding Egg. First, the egg's outer shell is soft and reddish in hue as the egg is filled with both yoke and a fair amount of blood. While this condition rarely harms the adults, they will no longer produce viable young, and those eggs that are fertile are stillborn. For Terror Bird ranches, this is usually immediate death to prevent the spread of the disease as blood eggs are not a viable product.

Newcastle

Named for the biologist who identified the disease, Newcastle is a relatively new discovery. Symptoms include hyperactivity, inability to focus, take a 3 legged position (using their head as a 3rd leg), staggering backward, and lack of self-preservation. This condition is so far only found in wild Terror Birds. The infection rate is rather low and seems only to be a bloodborne transfer.

Habitat Range

Terror Birds are mostly tropical in origin. They prefer forests, plains with tall grass, or even some rolling hills. They aren't well balanced in rocky or icy terrains and tend to fall prey to other carnivores from losing their footing. While most Terror Birds stay in warmer climates, a few breeds have ventured further into artic regions, although sticking to forests and fields.

Ground Nesters

These gigantic birds are unable to nest in trees like many others, or the cliffs of mountains such as giant birds like Rocs. Thus they make ground nests that usually are large enough for 2 terror birds to squat side-by-side. They are very protective of their nest and territory, continually patrolling and keeping an eye on potential dangers.
The birds hide their nests in foliage and brush and create multiple nest sites as decoys that are more obvious to find. This behavior has been altered in domesticated birds to produce eggs like that of a chicken. Significantly larger sizes of eggs are produced, between 5 and 8 inches tall.

Social Behavior and Mental Capabilities

Intelligence

To call something bird-brained is usually an insult. While Terror Birds don't have sentience, they are very calculating and clever. They can see hunter's traps for what they are and sometimes use them against hunters. They have been known to set off traps and hide nearby waiting for the hunters to retrieve the "prey."
Domesticated Terror Birds know their trainers, and even the usual people around them, much better than domesticated griffons. They are also usually trained to avoid attacking the people they work with while hungry, which is rare for such a predatory animal. They are very unforgiving, though, and if a person has wronged them, they don't hold back.
Terror Bird memory is long and will remember individuals of many creatures for a long time. While in the wild, this skill is less utilized, maybe except for hunters or rangers. Domesticated ones can be very loyal as a result and even recognize the names of friends.

Mated Pairs

Many birds mate for life, and these are no exception. Their loyalty is strong. Terror Birds seek their mate early in life, usually within their first 5 years, roaming the forests and planes, journeying to find a mate. When they see another member of their species, alone, they will make a display fanning out their small wings and side-stepping in a dance. If the other bird is looking as well, they will respond if interested by bobbing their heads up and down rapidly. If they are uninterested, the other bird can become aggressive, which can lead to a fight.
Once the birds find a mate, they will stay together for the span of their whole lives. While they may roam away from each other on patrols, they will always end the day together. Mates can identify each other visually by markings, smells, and even the sound of their shrill calls.

Territorial Carnivores

While members of different sub-species, especially with varying sizes, can tolerate each other, Terror Birds aggressively defend their territory from other predators their size, including similar Terror Birds. Fights of territory are rarely to gain or lose area rather just frequent on borders. Being intelligent enough to know when they are entering a rival's space, they know very well where they can cross. Sometimes they will purposely hunt in a rival's territory seemingly just to anger them. These antics lead to fights.

Mysterious Night Screeching

Terror Birds are generally not nocturnal, with a few exceptions, but almost all terror birds can be heard during the night. With seemingly no warning or reason, they awake from their slumber to make loud calls into the darkness. These sounds start as low throaty thrums that crescendo into ear-splitting wails. Different species have different calls, but all still display this behavior.

Interactions with Other Creatures

Domestication

First and foremost, the most common interaction is that with the Elven and Human communities that have domesticated terror birds. While Humans have domesticated the Brontornis, one of the larger varieties, Elves have attached more the Gastornis, which is, in comparison, is much smaller. Despite stocks of these birds coming from different types, they are both similar in domestication.
First, a domesticated Terror Bird is loyal but still a carnivore. They must be fed well enough, or hunger will cause them to be increasingly rebellious. Sometimes even picking off other members of a community to which they have no attachment. Second, they will only allow a few people to ride them also if they are well known and trusted.
Mating in captivity is a crucial process as keeping the correct genes, and friendly mentality is the whole reason they can continue to be used as allies. Unfortunately, it is a much more complicated process than in the wild. Unlike farm animals such as cows, Terror Birds prefer only one mate but most often mistake their care-taker as that role. This attachment is why until they find a mate in captivity, the trainers must keep a firm hand and distance until they are mature enough to be mated. These pairings of birds are often akin to an arranged marriage, and once they are bonded, they are much easier to give affection without negative attachment.
Not all Terror Birds are domesticated, but I suppose it could be possible. In my observations, all of them have that capability; even the dangerous and volatile Titanises have the capacity to hold violence in check.

Cats

Terror Birds have a natural aversion to cats. Not unlike other birds or dogs. However, these giant birds have no fear. They are nervous and often violent towards even small domesticated cats. They have a natural enemy in big cats and often come to blows for territory with tigers, lions, and saber-cats.

No Monster Too Big

While these predators usually only attack creatures, their size, or smaller, they are not afraid of any animal regardless of size. This selection doesn't mean they will attack the monster immediately but instead will ignore them unless provoked. If provoked, they unleash a fury that can take a young dragon off-guard and cause some harm. Domesticated birds will fight to the death for their riders and cause some severe issues, especially if outmatched. They had no natural predators in which they lived, maybe outside super ones like Hydras and Dragons.

Prey

Being predators, they favor killing their food but will eat raw meat from handlers, if domesticated. Live prey is a treat for them. While animals closer to their size are preferred, they will eat smaller creatures they can catch. Victims are usually quickly dealt with and eaten immediately. These birds do not play with food.

Battle Tactics

Terror Birds are no strangers to battle. Between defending their nests and taking down prey, they are fighting nearly daily. With this experience, they are not to be lightly taken when facing an aggressive bird. They are most often suited to a quick kill and 1 on 1 battle.
When facing a single opponent, the Terror bird tries to peck at the skull of their foe. With their powerful downward strikes, they can quickly finish even thick-skulled creatures with only a few blows, or 1 well placed strike. Their tactics are straight forward and aggressive. Squawking, pecking, and leaping at their foe keeps nearly anything on their heels. If an enemy is much larger than the bird, it will still come at them with full-force. When going for a kill, they can jump high and use their downward momentum to their advantage.
If facing multiple enemies, they can jump and kick at attackers from all angles. Wolves and other pack animals often mistake flanking them with a supreme advantage when they only need to swing their claws behind them for a fatal counter-attack. Terror Birds, however, are not fond of facing multiple foes and will strike faster than waiting for an attack usually.

Variations

Gastornins

Gastornis or plurally Gastornins are most popularly found in jungles and warmer forested environments. While they have been seen smashing nuts with their thick beaks, they are still dangerous predators. Standing at a comfortable 7-feet tall, they are imposing to even orcs for their strength and size. They are among some of the most hazardous bite crushing power and are used for crushing things in a utilitarian fashion.
Elves seem to use Gastornins in domestication most often because of shared environments. The domesticated Gastornins are the friendliest kinds as well. Gastornins enjoyment of both meat and nuts helps in keeping an ample food supply.
Gastornins are usually brown to black-feathered to hide in the forest homes better. They have bright blue skin around the face and neck along with a small, proportionally at least, gobbler like that of a turkey. Their eyes are large and yellow in coloration.

Brontornis

Brontornises are larger as far as Terror Birds go, as tall as 10 feet, and one of the slowest birds, only topping out at 25 mph run speed. However, they can carry two full-grown humans and is the only Terror Bird able to carry 2 riders of such sizes. Rarely are they used for beasts of a burden, though, as they are notoriously curious and often ransack luggage. They almost exclusively eat larger herbivores such as cattle and other herd animals.
For domestication, they make excellent mounts and body-guards. They are quite fond of standing in place for long periods on the lookout as they would on their plane homes watching a herd from a distance. Their beak is great at piercing armor as well, and they feed on armored animals by piercing a wound, placing their foot on the prey, and tearing the armor off. It works effectively against armored humanoids as well.
Feathers on Brontornises are usually lighter browns or greys. Their dull coloring makes it harder for the less gifted for sight herds to spot them in their stationary outlooks.

Titanis

The largest of the Terror birds reaching up to 15-feet tall are considered too dangerous to tame. Their beaks are also longer and more hooked than most varieties. They can run at speeds nearing 35 mph chasing down and tearing apart prey. They are voracious predators that attack many creatures on-site, when hungry.
Despite their size, they have vibrant and rich green colorations as they live in tall grasses around rivers. The cat-tails and swampy grass-fields are where they hunt for large fish, crocodiles, and any creature that finds itself wandering in the grass.
If they became domesticated, I would suppose it would have to be by larger peoples, such as orcs, that could stand at least half as tall to these massive carnivores. Halflings, unfortunately, would only be seen as prey, I fear.

Caprims

The smallest of the Terror Birds, Caprims are jungle dwellers that disguise themselves as flowers. They aren't afraid to attack humanoids if catching them by surprise, giving the black and red feathered birds the nicknames of Devil Flowers. They are fast runners and able to dart and dodge in the thick jungles nearly unhindered.
Domesticated Caprims make for quick messengers through thickly brushed environments. While they are certainly too small to ride, they make for a great companion that can follow directions better than a dog.

Diatryma

Diatrymas are known for their stark black feathers and Green eyes. They are not only nocturnal predators but also live in the underground tunnels beneath the surface. Some are tamed by under-dwelling peoples such as Drow, but ultimately they are free-roaming terrors of the dark. They are most likely to encounter Displacer Beasts, Hook Horrors, and other tough to kill enemies and thus live in flocks of up to 8 members.
Standing at a 6-foot tall posture when upright, they are taller than what the cramped tunnels allow. They make up for this by being the most flexible and creatively mobile Terror Birds. Their beaks are stiff but still narrow, and their skull is only slightly larger than the beak itself. Due to their improved flexibility, the Dyatryma can squeeze through areas as long as its head can fit through. They push with their clawed feet through cracks and pull by hooking their beaks on the stone.
While lighter creatures, such as elves, can ride them, they are most often used to fight. Their aggressive tactics and ability to traverse the dark better than many 4 legged animals gives them the advantage.

Kelenken

The Fastest of the Terror Birds, Kelenken, can top out at 40 mph. They chase down prey in open fields despite nesting in the forests. Found in colder and temperate regions, they prefer to keep away from larger predators like bears, which they have trouble bringing down. They are some of the rarest varieties outside of domestication. They are white-feathered with black accents around the eyes and wings. Their beaks are a stark orange, though, and tend to be the only visible aspect in a snowfall.
Kelenkens are domesticated for riding as they stand up to 9 feet tall and can bear 1 rider at nearly full speed. Most often though they are bred for racing and bets, Dwarven kingdoms are primarily known for their racing Kelenken.

Death Birds

While the name is ominous, it is rightfully earned. Another variety yet to be tamed, Death Birds are dangerous predators of humanoids. Also known as Phorusrhacos‭, they have adapted to specifically hunting humanoid creatures over time. Their markings are ominously dark grey or black with a white-tipped beak and white accents around their face. Death Bird markings when looked at from about 6 feet to 10 feet tall and facing them look as if they are a floating humanoid skull on a black body. Death Birds are visually adapted to keep their prey stunned in fear. They also give off a low rumbling that un-nerves many humanoids as a frightening tactic to keep them off-guard.
Living in warmer grass-lands and forests, they are well known to many humanoid tribes and even hunted as a ritual for some cultures. While they aren't domesticated in any, understandably why I do believe it is still possible. They would make for 1 intimidating mount for sure.

Axe Beaks

Andalgalornis or better known as Axe Beaks, are unique among Terror Birds for their beaks being hooked on both the bottom and top of their bill. Standing at just over 7 feet tall, they hunt in tropical regions. The upward swings of their heads are just as deadly as the downward strikes. This top spike can be helpful as the tropical forests hide predators in the trees and the ground. Their unique bills give them another angle in which they can attack.
They are brown with white feathers on their faces and undersides. Their tails are the most unique and can fan upwards, in a mating display, like a peacock or turkey.

DM Notes

Terror Birds are a fascinating group of extinct animals that came just after the extinction of the dinosaurs. I drew inspiration for this article based on the real-world scientific names as well as some fantasy ones I made myself. I highly suggest adding some spice to your campaign to use birds instead of horses in some cultures as horses don't do well in forests.
Here are some hooks for Terror Birds:

A silent ambush from the trees or tall grass (combat encounter)
A bird carrying an injured rider is lost and needs help
An injured bird tells of a larger danger in the area; the Terror Bird is a fierce fighter, so whatever laid the poor creature low must be strong.
A lone giant egg sits in a nest. Is it abandoned? Or are the parents around
The races are off! Except one of the riders is mysteriously killed, and the bird takes off to race with a dead jockey.
Someone is cheating to fix the races!
A trainer couldn't find an acceptable mate for his bird and needs your help to find it a suitable mate.

Thanks for Reading!

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Ultimate Gambling Guide for GTA Online - odds, probabilities, and optimal strategies

Since the Diamond Casino update, I have seen a large number of 12-year-olds posting Blackjack memes on this sub. As a parent, this has me very worried.
On top of that, I have seen some of the most trustworthy GTA Youtubers giving flawed gambling advice, which can have damaging impact on their gullible audiences.
So that's why I decided to write this up, to educate everyone on the subject, so there will be no more misunderstandings.
(2020 Update down at the bottom.)
If you're one of those Youtubers that wants to use this information in a video, feel free to do so. The more people (especially kids) that become educated about gambling, the better.
But then also please go back and review your own work, and delete or edit the videos that are giving out the wrong advice, like where you're saying you have "a good strategy for making money with roulette", or some other nonsense that I've heard this week. Delete that please.
Before I get into the individual games, I need to discuss a few concepts first, that will make understanding the rest a lot easier.

Expected return and variance
A game like Roulette or Slots has a fixed expected return on your bets. This is a percentage that you have no way of influencing. Say you are flipping a coin against a friend, and you both put up $1. The winner gets the pot. Since the odds are even at 50%, in the long run, you will expect to break even. Your expected return is 100% of your bet.
But imagine if you would play this coin flipping game in a casino against the house. On the "house rules" listed at the table they would probably say that you would only get 95 cents back for every win, while you are forfeiting a dollar on every loss. Would you still play?
Sounds stupid to do so, but still, everybody does it. Every bet they place on Roulette, every coin they put into a Slot machine, is based on the same concept.
Those few cents they take on every bet are their profit margin, and has paid for all the Vegas lights, the Mirage volcanoes, and the Bellagio fountains. Make no mistake - casino gambling games are not designed to make you lose, because sure, you can get lucky on a single night, but they are designed to make them win. That's the beauty of it. They can both exist at the same time.
Too many people that don't see how this works, are just destined for disaster. Just because you went on a lucky streak and won 8 games out of 10, does not mean that flipping coins is a profitable game, or that choosing tails is a winning strategy. Always be aware of the house edge, your true chances of winning, and just realize that you got lucky. There is no such thing as a strategy in flipping a coin that will give you a higher expected return, so it's just pure gambling, just like Slots and Roulette.
Most casino games are made in such a way, that your expected return is a little under 100%. This means that from every dollar bet at the tables, the casino expects to keep a few cents. For individual players, results may vary. Some will win, most will lose. But for the house, it doesn't matter. They take millions of bets each day, so for them, the expected average works out a lot sooner. In short: the house always wins.
When looking at the house edge, we're talking about the expected long-term result, based on the game's house rules. But for a player, it can take literally tens of thousands of hands or spins before you also reach this average number. Until that time, you can experience huge upswings and downswings, that are the result of nothing but short-term luck, which is called variance.
Some games and some bets have a much higher variance than others, which means your actual results will differ enormously from what you're expected to be at.
Take for example betting on red/black at the Roulette table. This is a low-variance proposition, because it has a high percentage chance of occurring, and a low payout.
Contrast this with betting single numbers in Roulette, which only win once every 38 spins on average. This bet has a much higher variance, meaning you can easily hit a dry spell, and not hit anything for 200 bets in a row, or you can see a single number hit three times in five consecutive spins. This is not a freak occurrence in high-variance bets.
Even though the expected return in both these bets is exactly the same, there's a huge difference in variance, causing massive differences in short-term results, which can go both ways. You need to be aware of this, before you decide what types of bets you are comfortable with placing.

Gamblers' Fallacy
Another thing to realize, is that each individual game, hand, or spin, is completely independent from the one(s) before it, and after it.
Gamblers tend to believe, that the chance of a certain outcome is increased, based on previous results.
The most famous example comes from the Casino de Monte Carlo, where the Roulette wheel managed to land on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost many millions during that streak, all frantically betting on red, believing that the odds were in favor of the wheel coming out on red, after producing so many blacks. This is not true. Each round is completely independent, and the odds are exactly the same.
You will hear people say things like a Blackjack table being "hot" or "cold", which is completely superstitious, and should be ignored. The exception was when Blackjack was being dealt from a shoe. It made card counting possible. But with the introduction of shuffle machines, and continuous shuffling like is being used in GTA, this no longer exists.
This is also why "chasing your losses" is a very bad idea. After being on a losing streak for some time, many gamblers believe that now it's their turn to start winning. So they will often increase their bet size, believing that when their predicted winning streak comes around, they will win back their losses, and more.
The reality of it, more often than not, is that people will indeed start playing higher and higher limits, until they are completely broke. Nobody is ever "due for a win". There is never a guarantee that you're about to start winning. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. You are, after all, in a casino.

Betting systems
Some people like to think that they have a fool-proof betting system, like the Martingale system. Simply increase or even double your bet when you lose, and keep doing that until you win. In theory, this system will always win. So that's why table limits were introduced, and where the system fails.
If you start at the Roulette table, playing red/black, with a small 750 chip wager, and just double your bet every time you lose, you only have to lose 6 times in a row, before you will be betting the table limit of 48,000, just to get that 750 chip profit.
Sure, you can go on all evening without this happening, winning 750 chips each time, but this losing streak only has to happen once, and you're bust. Any betting system like this is ill-advised, because you are hugely increasing your so-called "risk of ruin", and that's what we were trying to avoid.
And even if your starting bet is only 100 chips, after only nine straight losses, and nine doubled bets, you are betting the table limit at 50,000 chips. If you lose that bet, you're 100,000 chips in the hole, with no way to recover that with your 100 chip base wager.
So don't believe anyone that says this is the perfect system to always win in the casino. Sooner or later they will understand why they were wrong, when they're asking you for a loan.

Set your limits BEFORE you start playing
One final point before we get into the games, a general tip for people that head out to play: money management.
Just like in real life, before you go to the casino, decide on a maximum amount that you are WILLING TO LOSE.
Bet small enough, so that amount can last you through the entire evening, and you will not be tempted to run to the ATM to continue playing.
Considering GTA money, some people will be comfortable losing 1% of their GTA bank balance, some people will be comfortable with gambling away 5% of their total GTA savings. It's up to you what you can handle. Decide for yourself where it will start to hurt, and don't cross that line.
But whatever number you decide on, as soon as you lost that amount, get up and walk away. Don't chase your losses, stick to your limits, and accept that this has not been your day. There is always another game tomorrow. Always agree with yourself on a simple stop-loss rule, how much you would want to lose at most, and simply stop playing when you get there.
Same goes for winning. You can decide on a number, how much profit you would like to take away from the casino. You can go on a hot streak and be up half a million in a short period of time, but if you would continue to play longer, looking for more, chances are that you're going to lose it all back.
Most people are happy with doubling their daily casino budget, for example. Others are looking for 10 bets profit in Blackjack. Whatever you choose, when you hit that number, you can stop playing and bank your profits, or you can continue playing if you're still enjoying the games, but then only just play minimum bet sizes. Then you're just playing for fun, not for money. You've already made your profit, so simply keep it in your pocket, and don't risk losing it again.
Either way, decide on what your money management strategy will be, and STICK TO IT.

Casino games in GTA Online
Now, I'm going to dive into the games that you can find at the Diamond casino, ordered from worst to best.

6) Slots
Generally the rule is this: the less strategy a game has, the worse it is for the player. And with slots, this is definitely the case.
The only influence you have, is choosing what type of machine you're going to play. Basically, there are two types of slot machines:
-high frequency, low payout slots
-low frequency, high payout slots
In the first type, there is no huge (progressive) jackpot on offer, just your average selection of prizes that don't go up to crazy amounts.
This will result in a player having many more spins resulting in a win. The amounts that you win on the bigger prizes, will be smaller, but they do come around more often. This type of slot machine has a lower variance, which means that your money should last you longer, winning many smaller prizes along the way to keep you going.
The second type of slot machine lures you in with the temptation of a huge jackpot prize. Even though the long-term expected return on these machines is the same as the previous type, the prize distribution is hugely different. The large jackpot prize weighs heavily on the scale of expected return, but the chance of it hitting is extremely small. This results in a much higher variance on this type of machine. Usually your money will go down very fast, because the smaller prizes are less rewarding than on the other type of machine.
At the Diamond, the info screen says the player return at slots is set at 98.7%. This means that, on average, for every maximum bet of 2,500 chips, you expect to lose 32.5 chips.
This might not seem like a lot, but the danger of slots is that the game is extremely fast. You can spin about once every 6 seconds, which would result in an expected LOSS of about 20,000 chips per hour of playing.
But again, in this long-term expected number, the large jackpot awards are also factored in, and as long as you don't hit those big prizes, you'll see your money go down a lot faster.
In any case, thank heavens the max bet is only set at 2,500, or else we would see more players go bankrupt at alarming rates.
Optimal strategy for slots:
There is none. Because after betting, you have no more influence over the outcome. The only choices you have, is what type of machine you want to play at, and how much money you are going to risk. And those are all personal preference. As long as you stick to your loss limits, as discussed above, there's no harm in having a go every once in a while, hoping to get a lucky hit. Just realize that you don't have a high chance of scoring a big win, so as soon as you do, get up and walk away.

5) Roulette
Roulette is also a game where you have no influence over the outcome. There is zero skill involved. You place your bet, and that's it.
In traditional French roulette, a table has only the single-zero, but of course, for American casinos that wasn't enough of a house edge, so they simply doubled their profits by adding a second zero. The house edge was increased from 1/37 to 1/19, which is huge.
This makes playing on a double-zero roulette table by definition a sucker's play.
The payouts scale evenly, which means that a bet on a single number, and a bet on half of the numbers, and everything in between, yields the same expected return. The only difference, again, being the variance that you are willing to subject yourself to.
The player return for double-zero Roulette for all bets is 94.74%.
Except for the 5-number bet, which can only be made by placing a bet on the two top rows that contain 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The expected return on this bet is lower: 92.1%. This is because it only pays out 6-1. Why? Well, the number 36 isn't divisible by 5, so the greedy people that came up with double-zero Roulette had to round it off someway, and as expected, it wasn't going to be in the players' favor.Just remember that that 5-number bet is the worst bet at the table, and should be avoided. All other possible bets have the same expected return.
So it really doesn't matter how you spread your bets, if you bet only one chip, or if you litter the entire table with a bucketload of chips. Each chip you put out there, has the same expected return, so there is no strategy that will improve your long-term results.
Assuming that you're betting the maximum table amount of 50,000 chips, you will be looking at an expected loss of about 2,630 chips per spin. Considering that a round takes about 45 seconds to complete, your expected LOSS at the GTA Roulette tables will be around 200,000 chips per hour of playing.
Optimal strategy for double-zero roulette:
Stay away. Stay far away.

4) Three Card Poker
With Three Card Poker, we come across the first game where there is actually some strategy involved. You get to look at your cards, and then decide if you want to fold, and surrender your ante, or double your bet.
Additionally, you can choose to place a side bet on "Pair Plus", which offers progressive payouts.
There are some websites out there that ran all the numbers with computer simulations, and even though I would like to quote the source here, these websites are understandably littered to the max with online casino ads, so that's why I have decided against doing that.
Optimal strategy for Three Card Poker:
For this game you only have to remember one strategy rule: Always bet on any high card queen-six-four or better, and fold any high card queen-six-three or lower. That's it. Just don't forget to double check if you're not folding a straight or a flush, and you'll be fine.
This strategy will result in an expected return of 96.63%.
The Pair Plus sidebet, with the payout table that is used at the Diamond casino, gives you an expected return of 97.68%, which is actually a bit better than the main ante bet.
So by playing both wagers, you're reducing your expected losses per bet, but since you're betting more, you're also increasing your expected loss per hour.
My advice would obviously be to not play this game at all, but if you do, put as much of your bet as possible on the Pair Plus, while making our Ante bet as small as you can.
To be able to compare it to the other games at the Diamond, let's stay on that 50,000 maximum wager, meaning making your ante bet 35,000, and your pair plus bet 15,000, if the table would allow it.
This results in an expected loss of about 1,525 chips per hand, and with a round taking about 45 seconds, this adds up to an expected LOSS of around 120,000 chips per hour of playing. In comparison, if you would only play the ante bet for 50,000 per hand, you expect to lose 1,685 chips per hand, which means an expected LOSS of about 135,000 chips per hour. So the more out of that 50,000 wager you can put on the "Pair Plus" sidebet, the better.
Even though it may be fun to try out this game for a bit, since there's only one simple strategy rule to follow, you'll soon find yourself robotically grinding down your bankroll until it has vaporized. You're not missing out on anything if you skip these tables, there is no real challenge.
Just like with Roulette and Slots, if you want to try it out nonetheless, you can just bet the minimum amounts and only play for fun, so it won't matter if you win or lose.

3) Blackjack
Blackjack is the most complicated game by far. Simply because the player has to make a series of decisions, which will largely decide the outcome. Luckily, there is such a thing as an optimal strategy, which will be outlined below.
However, the strategy is also dependent on the house rules. These not only affect your expected return, but in some places also your decisions.
Here are the house rules at the Diamond casino:
-The game uses 4 standard decks, and a continuous shuffle.
-Blackjack pays 3 to 2, dealer checks for early blackjack.
-No insurance offered, no surrender.
-Dealer stands on soft 17.
-Double down on any two cards.
-Player can split only once, but doubling after split is allowed.
-Seven-Card Charlie.
Under these rules, and following the "basic strategy" chart, your expected return at Blackjack is a shade under 99.6%, which is extremely good for a casino game, that's why Blackjack should be your table game of choice.
But it comes at a price: you are going to have to memorize the relatively complicated strategy chart, or at least stick it to your monitor until you have it in your head. But in case you ever stumble into a real-life casino, you won't regret having this table memorized, so I would definitely advise you to work on that.
The strategy chart might look complicated at first, but you will be able to notice certain patterns. Your decisions are mainly based on the dealer's upcard, which is basically divided into a weak card (2 to 6), and a strong card (7 to ace).
When a dealer shows a strong card, you will be hitting more often with the risk of going bust, but when a dealer shows a weak card, you're not taking that risk, and you will be standing more, but also doubling and splitting more. You want to increase your bets when the odds are in your favor, and get out cheap when they're not.
But it also helps to take some time to think about why a certain advice is given. For example, why does it say that you always have to split two eights, even against an ace. Well, that's because two eights equals 16, which is the worst total you can have. It's better to split them up, and give yourself a chance of finding a 17, 18 or 19 with the next card. Once you see the logic in that, you'll have one less thing to memorize.
The playing advice in the basic strategy chart is a result of computer simulations that ran all possible outcomes against each other, and produced the most profitable decision for each situation. So you can't go wrong following it.
Optimal strategy for Blackjack with Seven-Card Charlie
The added house rule of Seven-Card Charlie, adds a small advantage for the player, and it does influence a few strategy decisions. For example, you might have a 14 with 6 cards, against the dealer's 5 upcard.
Normally this would be an automatic stand, but if you're only one card away from the Seven-Card Charlie, meaning an instant win for the player, regardless of the dealer's hand, it turns it into a hit.
Here's the most optimal strategy chart to follow for the Diamond Casino house rules: https://prnt.sc/olct6g
You'll see that two fives are missing from the chart, and that's because you never split them. You treat them as a regular 10. You also never split tens. Just stand on 20.
If you follow this strategy religiously, even with a maximum wager of 50,000 chips, you only expect to lose about 215 chips per hand, and with rounds taking about 30 seconds, that amounts to an expected LOSS of 26,000 chips per hour, which is only half a bet. A small price to pay for an hour of entertainment.
But since the expected return is so extremely close to 100%, you will see more positive short-term results than with other games. But obviously it can also swing the other way. Again, this is supposed to be the game where your money lasts you the longest, but always set your loss and win limits before you sit down. That rule simply always applies.

Still, even with optimal strategies applied, all these games are expected to lose you money in the long run. So betting any kind of large amounts is not advised. If you simply want to enjoy playing these games, there's nothing wrong with betting a minimal amount. Playing these games for a longer period of time will already cost you money anyway, since your daily property fees will still be charged while you're playing in the GTA casino. As long as you can play for fun, there's nothing wrong, but when you see yourself betting insane chunks of your entire bank balance to try to recoup some unfortunate losses, you're doing it wrong.
As the commercials in Britain all correctly say: when the fun stops, stop.

2) Virtual Horse Racing
Now onto the good stuff. I ran some numbers, and I believe Rockstar has made a mistake with the horse racing game. Because as it stands, and if I read the numbers correctly, this game is actually profitable for the player. You can actually make money with this, at least, until Rockstar figures out their mistake and patches it.
If anyone wants to jump into the math and double check this to make sure, please do so. I will add any corrections to this post. This is one of those "to good to be true" things, so I keep thinking that I might have overlooked something. So please verify it if you can.
The setup is this. There is a pool of 100 horses, each with their own attached payout. These are divided into 3 groups, ranked by their odds. From each group, 2 horses are randomly selected to provide a pool of six runners for you to bet on.
Now it's not an actual race you're looking at. You are looking at a raffle. This is important to realize.
Each horse gets awarded a certain number of raffle tickets. The favorites get awarded more tickets than the underdogs, and therefore, have a higher chance of winning.
If this distribution works like it does in the real-life casinos, then the raffle tickets are awarded according to the betting odds.
Example 1: imagine a race with 3 runners, all have 2/1 odds, representing a 33.3% chance of winning. (Because 2/1 means 2 AGAINST 1, so 3 total.) In this case, each horse gets one third of the raffle tickets, giving them an equal chance to win.
Example 2: imagine a race with 3 runners, one has 1/1 odds (or EVENS), representing a 50% chance of winning, and the other two horses are marked up as 3/1, with a 25% chance of winning. The favorite gets half the tickets, the other two get a quarter of the tickets each.
A ticket is drawn, and you'll have a winner.
It doesn't matter in this game which horse you bet on, because the expected return is always the same: 100% or break-even, for the above examples.
Now, what happens if the percentages don't exactly add up to 100%?
They must add up to 100%, because there will always be a winner. And only one winner.
So when this is the case, the actual winning chances of the horses are adjusted to meet the 100% requirement, using their payout odds to determine the scale.
So, if the represented percentages add up to more than 100%, the actual winning chances of the runners will be DECREASED, resulting in all bets becoming losing propositions for the players.
Example: In a 6-horse race, all runners are listed at 4/1, representing a 20% chance. Only with six runners that amounts to 120%. So all chances are scaled down by 1/6th, to end up at 100%.
This means your horse's chances are reduced from 20% to 16.67%, turning it into a losing bet: 5 times you will lose your bet, and 1 time you will win, but only get 4 bets back in this instance, instead of 5. A losing bet in the long run.
This is the type of odds that you find in regular casinos, with fields as large as 15 runners to bet on, where the assumed winning chances always add up to more than 100%, therefore are decreased for all runners, resulting in a house edge.

But in GTA Online's Inside Track, there are other scenarios, because of the small field, and the way that they are put together.
In some cases, the represented percentages when added up, are LESS than 100%, meaning that the actual winning chances of all runners, are INCREASED.
This creates profitable bets for the players, because in the long run, you're expecting to win more money than you lose. This is a gambler's dream, pure and simple.
So, according to the in-game information, the three groups of horses are divided as follows:
-Favorites: EVENS to 5-1
-Outsiders: 6-1 to 15-1
-Underdogs: 16-1 to 30-1

Let's take the two most extreme examples to show what's happening.
The worst possible field to bet on: two runners at EVENS, two runners at 6-1, and two runners at 16-1.
EVENS represents a 50% chance, 6-1 is 14.29%, and 16-1 is 5.88%. Add those up and you land on a total of 140.34%.
This means that the actual winning chances of the horses are decreased by 28.75% (to get that 140% down to 100%), which makes betting on this field extremely unwise.
A horse at EVENS will only come in as a winner 35.63% of the time, instead of 50%,
a horse at 6-1 will only win 10.18% of the time,
and an underdog at 16-1 will only win 4.19% of the time.

The expected return on a bet on any of the horses in this field is only 71.26%, so a maximum bet of 10,000 chips on any of these horses holds an expected LOSS of 2,875 chips.
These returns are the same, because the winning chances are scaled equally, according to the payout numbers. So it really doesn't matter which horse you bet on, in the long run, you expect the same results.
But as explained before, it does influence variance, and therefore your short-term result, which can swing both ways.

But now, the best possible field to bet on: two runners at 5-1, two runners at 15-1, and two runners at 30-1.
Odds at 5-1 represents a winning chance of 16.67%, 15-1 odds means 6.25% chance, and 30-1 odds means a 3.23% chance of winning. Add these six horses together, and you only get 52.285%.
This means that, to get from 52% to 100%, the actual winning chances of these horses will be almost doubled! Multiplied by 1.91 to be exact.
So the 5-1 favorites will now win 31.88% of the time, instead of 16.67%,
the 15-1 runners will win 11.95% of the time,
and the underdogs at 30-1 odds will still win 6.17% of the time.
When betting on this field, the expected return on your bet is 191.25%!
This means that a max bet of 10,000 chips will result in an expected PROFIT of 9,125 chips.
This is printing money, if there ever was such a thing.
Optimal strategy for Virtual Horse racing
So all you have to do, is only bet high on the games where you have an expected positive return, and bet the absolute minimum on the games where your expected return is negative. Or back out of the racing game to refresh the field.
If you don't have a way to quickly add up all the percentages, and until somebody shows up here with a neatly formatted table, just use a few general rules of thumb:
-Always bet the maximum on a race with favorites at 2/1 and 3/1 or higher in it.
-Simply skip all races with two favorites at EVENS in it, and at EVENS and 2/1. Or bet the minimum, if you can't skip or refresh the field.
-To decide if you should play races with other favorite combinations EVENS and 3/1, EVENS and 4/1, EVENS and 5/1, or two favorites at 2/1, the payouts on the other four runners determine whether or not it's profitable to play them. The results of betting on these fields vary from an expected 1,330 chip loss (worst-case) to an expected 1,680 chip win (best-case), with a max bet of 10,000 chips.
But if you're not looking for another strategy chart, you might just want to skip these borderline cases, and just cherry pick the best ones, which are easy to recognize, and with which you can never go wrong.
It's difficult to put a number on an expected win-rate, because it all depends on which fields you get presented with, but it's not unreasonable to state that you can maintain a steady win-rate of around 200,000 chips per hour, with about 50 seconds per race.
Remember, you're not trying to win every race. You're trying to win the most money per hour. So don't sweat it when you bet on a 4/1 favorite, and lose a couple of races in a row. It will still be more profitable in the long run. You have the math on your side.
To reduce negative variance, always bet on the favorite, when betting on profitable fields. We're not gambling anymore, we're grinding out a steady profit. We want to keep the swings to a minimum.
I contacted Rockstar support to verify if this is indeed how it works, but the only reply I got after 6 weeks is that they were "looking into it".
User u/Garsant made a useful Excel-worksheet, available for you to download, where you can quickly type in the payouts on the horses, to see if it produces a profitable bet or not. You can find it in his post here: https://www.reddit.com/gtaonline/comments/ekp8na/gta_online_inside_track_odd_calculato

1) Wheel of Fortune
The number one profitable casino game in GTA Online is obviously the Wheel of Fortune, because it costs you nothing to play.
Unfortunately, you only get one free spin per day, but it holds great value, so make sure you do it.
With a chance to win a super car, vehicle discounts, expensive mystery prizes (which also can be vehicles), and a lot of cash and chips, the expected return on a single spin is around $100,000 in value.
So don't forget your daily spin, it's definitely worth your time.

2020 Update:
As of the Diamond Casino Heist update, the Inside Track horse racing is confirmed to still be as profitable as outlined above.The only thing that seems to be changed, is that you can't refresh the field anymore by backing out of the screen. This does affect your hourly rate in a negative way, but does not change the fact that this game has a huge positive expected return, and should be your go-to when you're trying to take money from the house, without having Lester's nagging voice in your ear. That should also be worth something.

And with that, I conclude my 5,000 word essay on gambling in GTA. Questions, comments, feel free to add your input to this guide.

Cliffs:
-Gambling games should only be played for fun, not for big money. You should expect to lose in the long run. The house always wins.
-A casino game doesn't have a memory, and betting systems don't work.
-Set your limits before you start, how much you are willing to lose or win, and then walk away when you get there.
-Don't play slots, roulette, or three card poker.
-Only play blackjack following a basic strategy chart (https://prnt.sc/olct6g).
-Inside Track betting can be played profitably, if you only bet on fields WITHOUT a heavy favorite.
-Wheel of Fortune is always your best bet, because it's a free bet.

Hunter X Hunter Is it really a slow verse?

Originally, I did not intend in making a post on this so earlier (it was supposed to feature MHA's underestimated power) however I believe this deserves its own separate topic. People often argue the verse is below "Mach 1" and where this is coming from is of course Netero's "supersonic fist" so I will address the faulty in this and Feats disprove of "subsonic" Hunter Hunter and why Feats > Statements apply over all.

"He surpassed Sound itself"

Yes, Netero did in fact surpass the speed of sound...60 years ago. There are several things in-universe faster than sound and when a character is stated to surpass the speed of sound, sure its assumed they're "supersonic" however when you have a series which consistently perform "supersonic" feats and then a Top tier character is stated to be faster than sound, the statement might as well be vague. So, does Netero just now surpassing the speed of sound means everyone in Hunter Hunter are subsonic characters? No. Absolutely not.
Netero had surpassed the speed of sound with his NORMAL hands. Quote; "Normal Hands" and what I mean by this is Netero explicitly has faster moves than his normal hands and by mere observation that should be clear. The entire premise of Netero's training was to surpass his own limitations without the use of Nen. As shown Netero does not break the sound barrier with any amps, or "abilities" this is was his speed 60 years ago before the creation of his "Prayers" or "Bodhisvatta" Now for whatever reason, put seem to not tell the difference between Netero's showcasing in both his combat capabilities. Now in the image show Netero breaking the sound barrier was with his normal hands, but at the time of the Palace Invasion we see him clearly using something much much different and what does this appear to be? His prayers. Netero's prayers explicitly differ from his normal hands because they require much faster movement which he had trained to move faster than his normal hands which were his fist. The prayers require faster movement because he's performing actions several times within a short timeframe. Before I go any further the Netero we see breaking the sound barrier with his normal hands is not Netero's Prime. Netero did not use Nen when breaking the sound barrier, it was his own base form of speed. Netero at the time of his death was currently 110 years old, 60 years ago was when he broke the sound barrier, and at that time the formation of the Prayers and soon to be Bodhisvatta was not created at the time. The Netero we see breaking the sound barrier CANNOT be his Prime for several reasons because at the time of achieving his speed when younger, he was given the dojo. It is not until Netero gives up his Dojo to eventually find things to do on his own and more than likely the creation of Netero's prayers and Bodhisvatta came to be. And then we have people taking Netero "weaker than his prime" statement out of context. First of all, Netero said this before he begin to meditate. Otherwise if Netero was still massively weaker than his Prime, why would he fight Meruem without reaching the absolute pinnacle of his prime he can by mediating? Do you expect Netero to just sit on his ass all day and stay out of shape then still be capable of stalling Meruem? That would make zero sense. Netero after meditating clearly wasn't "more than half his prime" - that statement was said by Pre-Meditation Netero, the one stating Pitou was stronger than him.
With that addressed, lets continue on Netero's set speed. As I explained up above, Netero's prayers clearly differ from his normal hands, what else is above Netero's prayers? His Bodhisvatta. Netero's Bodhisvatta is Netero's fastest technique and stated by the narrator that its the only move which surpasses Meruem's speed. So claiming Meruem was getting blitzed by "Supersonic attacks" is far from true, explicitly because Netero's Normal hands is not faster than his prayers and his prayers is not faster than his Bodhisvatta nor are they equal. Netero at the time of breaking the sound barrier has undoubtedly improved. Just stating that Netero broke the sound barrier so his top speed is supersonic and he never stopped training seems so baseless. If Netero truly felt like being "supersonic" (when you have consistent characters scaling above such speeds) he wouldn't have gone to the lengths of creating several other techniques which are faster than his Normal. Netero has shown that he has feats far faster than supersonic. For example, his best feat is being able attack less than 0.1 seconds while falling as fast as the Dragon Dive which were kilometers in the sky that Pitou's 2 kilometer En only touched the front of it. Netero is falling in-sync with the Dragon Dives after sending Pitou away, which these shards were falling from 2,000+ meters in a timeframe of 0.96 seconds because thats the amount of time which had passed and the first of Zeno's dragon's have reached the ground ( the ones closest to the exterior wall is where we see a few have hit the ground). They would be traveling at supersonic to hypersonic speeds and Netero is statuing these Shards in a timeframe of less than 0.1 seconds before they even fully passed him. Its impossible for Netero to even be considered "supersonic" when you have feats like that. After all, Netero and Meruem were exchanging blows thousands of times in a timeframe less than a minute while Meruem being pushed back several meters constantly. The amount they exchanged is vague along with its timeframe. However even lowballing the feat by saying Netero and Meruem only exchanged 1002 times and the timeframe they exchanged for was for 59 seconds, you'd still get hypersonic based on the fact Meruem was being pushed back several meters. And the numbers given isn't the likely interpretation, but just lowballed numbers. The fact is, claiming that Netero is supersonic and everyone below him is as bad as claiming that "Naruto characters couldn't outrun or dodge bullets" and Kishimoto does infact state this. I wanted to speak on Naruto for a while now in regards to its speed and how its often portrayed in VsBattle communities. On WWW, Naruto characters are often going against Hunter Hunter characters, and there will always be that group of people who believe even Part 1 Characters would hilariously shit on Hunter Hunter top tiers, which I find unbelievably false but that's not what I'm arguing here, its the fact that people will downplay Hunter Hunter's speed and take Netero's supersonic statement to conclude that the verse is heavily below the speed of sound. And majority of the time its referenced in Naruto vs HxH threads, now I completely agree that the Naruto verse is a tier above HxH overall, but Naruto has its issues with speed too (which I have seen several post on) but I'm going to use Naruto as reference to reason with why using this logic for Hunter Hunter is absurd because believe or not, Togashi and Kishimoto are inconsistent ass fucking writers and have no real knowledge of how fast their characters are. Back on topic...
Lets take Zetsu's Lightning speed statement into value since I think it personally gives us how fast Naruto characters had really gotten.
「落雷は千分の一秒。。。音よりも速い！」 "Lightning strikes in one thousandth of a second... [It's] even faster than Sound!"
In this panel Black Zetsu is explaining to White Zetsu why Sasuke's assessment that the Kirin is impossible to dodge is correct. First he gives some actual numbers for how fast lightning is, describing how quickly it can reach the ground. Then to put those numbers into context he states "It's even faster than sound!".
Here's the thing, originally people relied on a fan based translation that instead stated "It's hundreds of times faster than sound!", which while not wrong in the technical sense (lightning really is that much faster than sound) gives a very different meaning. The speed of sound is actually something that is very consistently an extreme upper limit in Naruto, something that is nearly impossible to bypass. All the way back in the Chunin Exam's it's described as "The Wall" which no amount of hard work can surpass. The character stating this is technically wrong, but when that wall is breached it's with extreme methods such as Rock Lee or Gai opening Five (out of Eight) Inner Gates. Or vastly chakra intensive jutsu being used to accelerate objects to incredible (often impossible to dodge) speed. Yeah sounds familiar right?
And Zetsu's original wording is in line with this. Lightning is "even faster than sound" he says. The same way that you or I might say that a projectile fired from a railgun is "even faster than a bullet!" when explaining why someone can't dodge it. Or saying that car is "even faster than a horse" when explaining why people can't outrun cars.
Now fifth gates guy and lee have explicitly shown that they can move faster than sound, only with the power of the gates and no form prior to this. In the scene, its stated that "They're moving faster than sound!" in other words...they are only capable of breaching faster than sound feats with the use of gates evident in them only being stated to be faster than sound by that amp. Not in base stats, not in any gate other than the fifth, they do not perform supersonic movement. Not saying that they are borderline subsonic, I'm really not trying to argue Naruto's speed here (this needs its own post anyways, I plain on making something in correlation to 'What is Naruto's true speed?' because I have found some interesting stuff which makes Naruto's speed questionable...but anyways) the fact is, using Netero's statement in general is poorly misunderstood. It does not hold value if there are more consistent feats and when Netero himself is evidently above supersonic. Otherwise the same can apply to several verses.
I don't have much to say in regards to this, however posts like mine have picked up on this. The post goes in-depth of how Netero being supersonic is IMPOSSIBLE especially when its consistent with the series.
So, why did Togashi decide to make it seem like being faster than sound impressive if other characters were already above such speeds?
Yeah, I question the same exact thing. However there are clear answers to it and it wasn't meant to be seen as "Holy shit, he broke the sound barrier so he's supersonic!" In fact, its the exact opposite. Interpret how you want, but feats > statements most of the time. There are several reasons which debunk the fact this is true and thats by consistent feats.
Evidence;

Killua reacts to a Bullet 57 cms from his face

For context: Killua would extend his aura 57 cms from his face to sense the bullet which was being shot at him due to him failing to sense the bullets specifically because he did not know where they came from as the bullets are able to attack from Killua's blind spots which is shown here and with the help of flutter they were able to attack from Killua's blind-spots which by Flutters own words allows him to see all angles from the opponent meaning he can tell accordingly where Killua's blindsides would be enough for Ikalgo (the sniper) to do damage. So by extending his aura 57 cms from his face, it allowed him to sense where the bullet was coming from thus making him capable of reacting to these bullets "With Pure Speed and Superhuman reflexes" by the narrator meaning Killua in fact is faster than sound in reflexes and reactions.
Even beforehand, we have Killua blatantly defending against an explosion point blank range (also counts as a durability feat for Killua)
If thats not better enough, we have Killua explicitly being stated to handle Modern Military. Considering the Republic of East Gorteau is based on modern dictatorships, you bet your goddamn ass the soldiers he fought weren't carrying sticks and spears, or anything short of semi-automatic weapons. He's not much hyperbolic when he means this as its even said that the Military cannot handle him I fail to see how a subsonic character could handle modern military weapons days upon days.
Killua goes from atop a high treejump, snaps an ant a dozen meter's away neck and rips off his arms in milliseconds and is traveling past him before he can see a single thing, and it was so quick the other ant describes it as an instant. He's already dozens of meters away in the treetops the immediate next moment which he did in the same timespan with which he snapped the Ants arms and necks. I fail to see how subsonic can be argued for the verse, specifically in combat.

Uvogin catching point blank bullets

The gun is roughly 4 cms ~ from his face. This is a legitimate reaction feat, yet somehow people argue it isn't? Or its portrayed as Uvogin just opening his mouth beforehand despite there is zero indication of this being true and is perfectly consistent for Uvogin's later feats. Let's say that Uvogin is a brilliant genius and has his teeth set exactly, no more than a millimeter wider that the bullet, and he's able to predict EXACTLY where the guy is going to fire. Uvogin still has to react to that bullet traveling at 375 meters per second or so if the guy is 3 meters from his face (3 meters wasn't the actual distance but is just being used as reference) he has less than .01 second to register that gun has been fired. He also has to have his teeth close precisely with just enough force so that the bullet doesn't get chopped through, and close them no more than two millimeters in 0.0018 second-because the bullet travels its own length in that time-frame. In fact, he has less time than that. Uvogin would have to close his jaw, with perfect planning and precision. Considering the fact it was to showcase that Uvogin has insane reactions and insane durability, we see that Uvogin is often more reliant on his durability than actual reactions. Uvogin has been tagged by things much slower, and by definition would be an outlier...only if it wasn't in-character for him. Uvogin has explicitly shown that he can be caught offguard by things when not in-focus. Even more incidents of this is where he's getting tagged by slower characters than his reactions though he was not looking for this to be an anti-feat. Most of his encounters (since well he only has two) we see that he can easily be caught off-guard. Its not like the characters he was facing were entirely slow, Rabid Dog was able to process and defend "A Bullet" from Uvogin's mouth and considering the fact Uvogin is capable of emitting sound waves which are enough to create shockwaves from several meters, along with being able to even throw Rocks several meters that they move FTE to people, its not a stretch to say Uvogin could throw/shoot projectiles at speeds similar to that of a Handgun.

Kurapika catches bullets

Somehow this is regarded as aim-blocking? However we explicitly see that Kurapika doesn't swing his chains until after the bullet is fired and he is not spinning his chains around, he's downright catching them one at a time. The 2011 version makes it seem like Kurapika is just spinning his chain around, making it seem like blatant aim-blocking. However the 1999 anime portrays this differently which is equivalent to the managas interpretation. This requires eye coordination, and movements to act within that time. Kurapika is downright catching bullets.
He also dances around Uvogin casually who's a casual bullet-timer. Not only that, Kurapika has been stated capable of performing feats in 0.2 seconds or less by crossing an additional 20+ meters to capture Chrollo which delayed his reactions by a split second meaning Kurapika would have to act within that time, then race back to the car before anyone notices that Chrollo had disappeared. Yorknew has several overlooked speed feats, and I'm going to address some here.
One is how Chrollo is attacking in a milliseconds worth of time before any can notice the slight hint in movement of his arm, and a professional hunter was only capable of seeing a slight swift of his movements. I have seen other downplay like the travel speed needing cars to reach destinations, but I mean

The Phantom Troupe explicitly stay on the low time to time when not trying to get tailed. But on some occasions, they simply do not care.
Them having poor travel speed doesn't mean that applies to their reactions, movements and combat speed in general.

Hell, Togashi has done things like this in the past. Anyone who probably debated Yu Yu Hakusho had to have come across Yusuke failing to outrun a goddamn truck which can be clear Plot-Induced Stupidity or Yusuke just has poor travel speed which does not speak about his reactions.
Point is, the difference between Travel speed - reaction speed - combat speed - and movement speed has been made pretty clear within the Hunter verse. Its the reason why Netero isn't as fast as his Bodhisvatta because Meruem is capable of blitzing Netero several times despite the Bodhisattva being stated to be the only thing which exceeds Meruem's own movements.

Hisoka catches coins which were shooting faster than bullets

Hisoka considers these bullets fast. And by the feats I demonstrated that these characters above are consistently bullet-timers. Hisoka infact scales to these bullet timers if not massively above and for him to consider the coins fast in general holds it to them being faster than bullets.
But I mean, they are confirmed to be nonetheless. And one may try and argue that "Its saying its more powerful not faster" Bullets are fast because of its KE it produces when fired. It hits hard due to its speed, and the fact that Gotoh's coins were being stated to be more powerful would mean they would travel faster than at least the average bullet because of its force. Hisoka also questions if he gotten used to Gotoh's attacks or that they had gotten slower, meaning that he did consider them quite fast and was capable of reacting to the other faster bullet coin if he's able to make judgements of how fast or slow they had gotten.
Hisoka is even capable of defending against explosions from point blank range before it can entirely obliterate his body, these explosions in fact do have large AOE which are potent enough to damage Hisoka. Hisoka does lose a leg, however this was due to him having had extended his leg as he was being rushed by several exploding puppets and it was within the explosions point-blank radius. Hisoka still defended in time before it took over his entire body which he defends against and we know that Hisoka didn't realize that the explosion had taken off his leg, which he was surprised by.
With those list of speed feats, I do not see how anyone can necessitate that the verse is subsonic by any means. Now, some people might bring up times where characters within that verse perform poor travel speed which means they're automatically subsonic, and one of them being Killua.
First of all, its stated that Killua divided Godspeed into two functions.
Speed of Lightning allows Killua to use his body at superhuman speeds consistently and Killua is not that slow when using Speed of Lightning. We are shown that Killua infact is capable of performing fast burst speeds crossing several meters in a mere instant. And Here we see that Killua was already hundreds of meters away from where he started and the motorcycle which catches up to him isn't slow either. Killua also had the supported weight of Alluka on him, which would slow him down more than usual. Now Killua's travel speed is still vague. First of all, Tsubones statement to Killua taking less than 10 minutes to cross a 40 km distance isn't a way to scale Killua's speed.

Killua makes the observation that Pallister is within 40 kilometers by the paved road. It was only after the fact that he jumped off the edge into the forest, taking different unpaved route, that Tsubone made the guess that he would make it in less than 10 minutes.

Its unreasonable to assume this is the time Killua took if he hadn't taken the roads 40 km distance. Killua had to travel through woods, which would mean the distance Killua traveled would be more than 40 km through woods because he never took the roads route. And the fact Killua took the road meant that it was a more lesser distance because Killua would have no reason to travel on road if we he was trying to shake off Tsubone. The woods would have been far more effective to lose them. Killua likely traveled more than 40 kilometer through woods, which makes sense for the fact the roads were a much faster route compared to the woods but that was shortly cut off.
Adding onto the fact Killua crossed an equivalent if not above distance to reach Gon and Pitou in 2-4 minutes, maybe even seconds depending on how you gather the timeframe. Point is, calculations which put Killua's travel speed at 66 m/s awfully exaggerates what is being said. Killua's Godspeed in Speed of Lightning doesn't have Quantifiable travel speed IMO.
Whirlwind
Is quite literally actions which allowed Killua to perform Nigh-Instantaneous actions. In which here he can respond to enemies aura intent thus automatically acting before the opponent can perform that action. Shown here that Killua can act quite fast. Not much needs to be explained about the ability other than it sends electric signals to the body without the brain having to tell the body to do anything when its just automatic. How fast these electric signals travel is unknown and unquantifiable, however we know its able to act against very very fast characters.
Cheetu is also one. Apparently he has very slow travel speed compared to his reactions and burst speeds, evident in him stated to clock over at 125 mph. However the issue with this is Cheetu is explicitly not using his fastest speed. Cheetu time to time does not travel at his fullest speed, this is likely his jogging rather than full speed. Cheetu later, Cheetu is stated to have a speed of 200 mp/h. So how fast Cheetu really is? Cheetu has explicit set of speeds, running speeds isn't comparable to that of his reactions/movement. In combat, he's capable of easily tagging both Morel and Knuckle who are superhuman characters several times before they even noticed basically going FTE to them and then appearing a few meters back to this original position.
Now Cheetu infact does have fast burst speeds, which is known as a blitz. Here we see that Cheetu is dashing at speeds which allow him to cross hundreds of meters in a short time and no more than a few minutes later, we see that Cheetu is miles ahead from where Morel and Knuckle were.
Even before then, Cheetu has shown blitzing several people before noticing they lost their body parts while he appears several meters away. (Adding onto the fact that Cheetu crossed NGL's border in a short amount of time which is a 2,000 kilometer country).
I believe Togashi really has lost a track of his characters speed, but not towards the point where being FTS is consider fast in the verse. We have statements that even reference Light-Speed movements and for him to have his characters consistently perform hypersonic feats, like catching bullets from Point Blank range? I heavily doubt Togashi thinks that will still make his characters subsonic by now. Even more evident is the fact one of the prince downright performs bullet-timing feats in the current arc. I do not know what else to say but, the verse isn't subsonic by any means. Its fairly consistent and has no real outliers which can't be explained and reasoned with.
But eh, Sesame Street still solos the verse. Pretty fodder if you ask me.

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