sirblastalot

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
rpg
[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 weeks ago

I think it's fine if they act like highschoolers in a show for highschoolers. It just means that's not a show that's for me.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think you're selling DS9's progressiveness short. The federation is portrayed as less progressive, but the message of the show itself is far more progressive than the norm; if anything, it makes the federation standins for moderate/centrist/liberals and calls them out for not being left enough.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A couple thoughts occur:

  • If you wanted to justify big cities in wildernesses, you could use the prevalence of monsters to do so. Say it's just too dangerous to have small villages, and everyone has to spend the night in a walled town/city for their own safety.
  • I'm pondering how magic could effect this, too. You might have a whole Town in this ecosystem replaced by just a single wizard, who's willing to magic up complex tools or luxuries in exchange for an exorbitant payment from the peasants.
  • A lot of fantasy settings are lowkey post-apocalyptic, inspired by the Dark Ages and/or The Black Death. You may encounter isolated Villages that are struggling to scrape by as their Town got wiped off the map, or isolated Cities crammed full of starving refugees that fled their Villages.
[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Could you elaborate? How do their healing systems work? What makes them good?

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Do you have a system you like where healing is a good idea? I'm a 3.5 native so I'm kind of used to the philosophy of "the best healing is killing them before you take damage." But I'm interested in systems design in general and if there's a particularly good example of doing it better I'd love to learn about it.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I know y'all are talking about like, buying a wish spell, but y'all make it sound like the mom hired a magic gigolo XD

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 weeks ago

Now you've inspired me. I should make a character who's 1 level in sorcerer, the rest in wizard, and the premise is that they set out to prove everyone wrong that they're not just going to rely on their inborn talents and they're ready to do the work!

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

Really? I actually think it's one of the strengths of 5e. In 3.5 you just have negative hitpoints down to -10, and that doesn't scale with level or anything so it's barely relevant after the first few levels. And it's nice to not be just DRT when you get downed in combat.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 3 points 3 weeks ago

You slightly moved the goalposts there. The assertion is not "Everything is making a political statement" it's "Everything is political." Your ikea glass reflects your social class, the international relations between where you are and where it was made. It may have been made by an oppressed person in some third world shithole (or even sweden!) It may even be a political statement, like a designer somewhere made it curvy because he thinks people are more likely to buy something with a "feminine" silhouette.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 1 points 3 weeks ago

Well, the goal of rent seeking is to collect money, without giving any products or services in return. And without a product, you don't need a Product team.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 19 points 4 weeks ago

"Selectively simulationist" is a great way to put it. I think everyone falls victim to that from time to time and I'm definitely stealing your turn of phrase.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Disco lost me when I got to the episode where everyone is going to die unless the main character cAn tAlK tO a bOy aT tHe dAnCe!

Lower Decks was fun though. And I've watched like, 1 episode of SNW but it was a good pilot. Haven't plumbed the depths of the rest of nutrek yet.

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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by sirblastalot@ttrpg.network to c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
 

Just got done investigating a spambot we had earlier, and it looks like they used a lot of compromised accounts on other instances to give their post an initial upvote boost. If you don't already, please remember to use a good strong password. Keeping your account secure helps reduce spam across the whole of lemmy, and keeps your account from getting banned for things you didn't actually do.

I recommend Diceware! I use it in my professional capacity as an IT/Security person, and also you get to use your mathrocks!

EDIT: Oh, also, all that numbers and symbols shit is no longer considered good practice. Just make it a really long collection of random words, at least 12, ideally 16+ characters. And make sure the words are actually random; your 3 favorite sports teams isn't good enough, which is why I recommend diceware.

 

AI generated content is now banned. RPG-related discussion about generative AI is explicitly allowed. Please see this thread for more details: https://ttrpg.network/post/26260249

 

I've been reading about the user revolt on the Twin Peaks subreddit calling for a ban on AI art. As best I can tell we don't really have people posting AI stuff here yet, but I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to ban it before it becomes a problem. I'm soliciting feedback from y'all on this, please let me know what you prefer.

 

Perhaps obvious to everyone else, but I've hit upon a little trick for better coordinating game time. Instead of announcing "Game will be at 1 o'clock" I've been doing something like "Doors open at Noon, Game starts at 1." This way, the people that want to hang out, level their characters, decide what they like on their pizza, etc all show up at noon, and the people that are running late or decide to come at 1 arrive with the expectation that they're going to walk in the door and immediately start playing. It also provides a natural transition point from the arriving/hanging out mode to game time, which otherwise makes me feel kind of uncomfortably teacher-y, calling the whole class together and whatnot. Try it out, maybe it will help you too.

 

You see something similar in the entranceway to public bathrooms that don't have doors, where it kind of zig-zags for privacy. I'm trying to figure out what this kind of architectural feature is called. Thanks!

 

I recently started a new campaign. Two players (one who has played in my games before and their SO, who has been begging me for a spot for years) unexpectedly dropped out, moments before our first session. Their reason was somewhat baffling; they said they didn't want to spend "all day" on this, despite the game only going from noon to 3PM. They seemed to think this was a totally unreasonable expectation on my part, despite them previously having stated they were available during that time. This puzzled me.

I've been musing on this, and the strange paradox of people that say they want to play D&D but don't actually want to play D&D, and I've had an epiphany.

A lot of people blame Critical Role or other popular D&D shows for giving prospective players misplaced perceptions, often related to things like your DM's voice acting ability or prop budget, but I don't think that's what's going on here. My realization is that, encoded in the medium of podcasts and play videos, is another expectation: New players unconsciously expect to receive D&D the way they receive D&D shows: on-demand, at their house, able to be paused and restarted at their whim, and possibly on a second-screen while they focus on something else!

I don't know as this suggests anything we as DMs could do differently to set expectations, but it did go a long ways to helping me understand my friends, and I thought it might help someone here to share.

 

I've got an unholy-water fountain, a human chessboard, and an evil hedge maze. I need 1 more thing to put in the last corner of the square courtyard/garden thing. Any suggestions?

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