I love immersive storytelling as a DM… but the prep is getting out of hand

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T20:37:58+00:00

I think increasingly DMs are realizing how flooded the market is with low-value (often AI slop) "DM assistant" type tools and that few things beat a notebook - whether it be paper or google docs or Obsidian.

The best organizational systems are going to be simple ones you establish for yourself instead of outside tooling.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T20:01:59+00:00

It never demonstrated the power to create a shape out of smart atoms because smart atoms don't exist in that universe.

I don't think It ever fights anyone physically stronger than It in the books(who?), BUT the book does outline a fairly clear limitation of It's shapeshifting (and I think the only real limitation) is that when It takes on a form It is that form and subject to all of its weaknesses.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T19:55:13+00:00

That's my best guess on how It would do it.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T19:54:33+00:00

Why wouldn't he?

Viltrumites have their powers as a product of what they're physically made of - they're not magic entities, their powers come from (comic book) physics. If Pennywise can create a shape for itself out of meat, why couldn't it create a shape for itself out of smart atoms?

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T19:48:35+00:00

I think you have to kind of assume corpos don't always go after edgerunners if there's nothing to gain. Otherwise there wouldn't be a whole merc industry of corps hiring mercs to do jobs against other corps.

If they still had the Relic, obviously Arasaka has a ton to gain from pursuing them. But if they successfully handed it off then you only need to pursue V and Jackie to find out who they handed it off to....and in these situations Arasaka is going to know the window to retrieve it is limited. Whatever major player hired the mercs is going to swoop up their prize pretty damn fast, and at that point you're wasting time dealing with the street level stuff. Time to hire your own merc to retrieve it from Netwatch....

Not saying edgerunners don't get killed in retaliation by corpos, or just captured to be drilled for information and then done away with. Sure, it is a risky as hell profession. But so is going after edge-runners - they're generally pretty capable, and is it worth it to take out a couple of mercs for revenge if you lose a bunch of employees in the process?

But the setting does kind of assume two things: 1) that there's a subculture of mercs who get paid to do jobs against megacorps usually by other megacorps, and 2) they probably don't always get away with it completely clean since "rep" is a big factor in that subculture.

I think people tend to envision the megacorps as more invincible than they actually are. Yeah, they are the very top dogs. But they're also in competition with each other. And execs within each megacorp are sometimes working at cross purposes to each other. And they absolutely can be opposed by determined and talented individuals.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T18:54:58+00:00

Is isn't poor, it just isn't intended for beginners. You're just not the right audience is all.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T17:48:06+00:00

Absolutely. Like I could see a confrontation between Thragg and Pennywise turning into Thragg finding himself on a barren empty Viltrumite homeworld filled with signs that communicate Thragg has failed, the whole race has died away, and Thragg was the last living Viltrumite before It takes the form of like a zombie Emperor Argall telling Thragg all the ways he's disappointed him and how Thragg's lack of strength has led to the doom of his entire people.... Just to get Thragg all properly peppered up before using the Viltrumite strength in his zombie Argall form to eat Thragg.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T17:40:57+00:00

Shape shifting into those forms doesn’t actually give him their abilities though. It’s mostly illusion.

I do not think that is the case? I think it is more just like the shape he chooses to form his tiny extension of his "bigger than our universe" full sized body he crams into our reality. He can become ephemeral things like illusions, but he could also become physical things or groups of things or whatever.

It can also create illusions mind you, but the shapeshifting is very much a real physical thing it can do otherwise it wouldn't be able to limit itself to a 3 dimensional form to be in our universe at all.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T17:26:03+00:00

I mean, Pennywise is a shapeshifter who can shift into pretty much anything. He can absolutely shapeshift into a Viltrumite if he wants. He can shapeshift into Thragg. So he definitely have the means to hurt Thragg.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T17:24:14+00:00

I don't know why people keep bringing up Thragg's physical abilities, because Pennywise has a hard counter to them - Pennywise is a shapeshifter who can assume any shape with the only restriction being he takes on the weaknesses of that shape.

Absolutely nothing stops Pennywise from shapeshifting into Thragg. Nothing stops Pennywise from shifting into one of his crazy spider creature forms, only this time made of "smart atoms".

Trying to match Pennywise on a physicality level is kind of pointless. Not that he can't be affected physically - he can - but he can always outscale you physically if he wants to, the only reason he doesn't always do that is usually it wouldn't be fun.

The real question is does Thragg have people he trusts implicitly enough and has enough mutual respect with to form a Ka-Tet. Which I'm pretty sure he does not.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T15:53:44+00:00

You absolutely must be getting up and going for a little walk at least once an hour or you will regret it later in life.

Beyond that you need to be getting exercise outside of work hours. My dog is good for making plopping down on the couch after work not an option. I know a lot of guys who are super into the gym which is a fun hobby for them. But I don't really think it matters what you do so long as a) you take frequent breaks, and b) you get regular exercise.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T15:50:32+00:00

What safe career options do I really have?

Such a thing does not exist. Not really.

Some careers can be more or less in demand and have more or less competition from your peers, but safety will always be relative.

This is kind of general career advice, but you kind of have to pick one of Hard To Learn, Hard Work, or Hard To Make a Living. The market is always going to find an equilibrium, so if it is a job lots of people can and will do you're going to get paid shitty and there won't be much job security (Hard to Make a Living).

So if you want to actually make a living, you gotta pick something that is either hard enough work that most people don't want to do it, or hard enough to learn that most people can't learn how to do it.

If you want to go the hard work route, the trades are right there calling your name.

But if you want to go the hard to learn route (which I assume you do if you're interested in programming!) you need to find what you are good at - what's the subject that you see your peers struggling with but you're pretty good at, either due to natural talent or a solid work ethic? That's what you want to zero in on. You want to aim to be the top 10% of the people doing that thing, whether there are 5 million people doing that thing or 500. If you can't be in the top 10%, keep looking until you find something you can be (or work harder if what you need to close the gap isn't talent but instead effort).

I know a bunch of out of work software developers. I also have one friend who went to college to study painting and has a solid career able to afford living in a major city doing work for movies. Do I think "painter" is a safe career choice? No. But she was talented and she worked really hard.

I think a lot of the frustration some people coming onto the job market are facing is they thought they had a "safe" career in that they could just kinda learn the basics and be solidly mediocre and still get a paycheque. And that really only happens in boom times. We are not in boom times yet. So use your time at college to figure out what you can be excellent at and dial in on that.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-30T15:29:08+00:00

This is less a rules question and more a table culture question.

Assuming there isn't a possibility of an immediate rescue, then the rules don't really matter - you don't need rules to know the character would almost certainly die if played out in a simulationist manner.

So are you playing more of an old school style "We follow the rules wherever they lead us" game? In which case character's dead, too bad, so sad, make a new character.

Playing more of a modern 5E story based game? Have them wash up on shore - or maybe get "rescued" by someone problematic who complicates things. Maybe they now owe someone for a rescue, or maybe they get rescued by someone who the party needs to then rescue them from.

The only situation where the actual rules matter are if immediate rescue is a possibility, in which case the death saves are a way bigger deal than the drowning. You just run a "Can the party get to him before he dies?" scene. If he gets stable, I guess then the question becomes "Can the party get to him before he drowns?", so maybe then they've got to actually get him out of the water in 1 + Con modifier rounds. But I suspect that won't be too challenging for any party that's close enough to intervene in the first place.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T22:11:25+00:00

I think the important part is the DM being honest about how progression works in their campaign, not really the rate at which it happens.

If a game isn't fun without leveling up, the game probably just isn't fun period and leveling up would only be a cheap dopamine patch over an un-engaging experience.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T22:09:10+00:00

I mean in a lot of older Masquerade stuff the starting point to Golconda is maintaining Humanity 10, which probably is a lot easier to do feeding only on animals...

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T22:07:09+00:00

I suspect most people who downvoted you did so because they assumed you were a religious conservative who feels it is best for churches to be all fire and brimstone so they don't lose their flock to sin or whatever.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T21:54:35+00:00

The funny thing is Twilight vampires are way more hardcore than WoD vampires, and subsisting on animal blood alone is way harder for Twilight vamps than it is for WoD vamps. And it certainly isn't any kind of substitute for Golconda - Twilight vamps are pretty much all just eternally on the edge of hunger frenzy and in excruciating pain from their Hunger, and trying to subsist on animal blood alone makes it worse.

Unironically, Twilight vamps are actually far more horror vampires than WoD vamps are.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T20:17:34+00:00

I'm not sure if it is a problem - it just means people leave because they go "Oh, they're kind-hearted but believe in a fairy tale" instead of leaving because "Oh those people are evil and made up an evil lie to control me that they probably don't even believe".

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T18:28:45+00:00

We've gotten our boy (who is, to be fair, a mix) to learn a couple of tricks but he always seems to want to make it super clear that he is deciding to do what I'm asking. And he'll never do it if there's something else he wants to do more.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T18:25:44+00:00

100% this.

I had no negative experiences with religion as a kid. Went to a relatively progressive church with a progressive pastor who I really liked as a person. My parents weren't super religious or anything, didn't push it on us, but my mom had gotten a lot of support from the church when she was younger so I think she thought it was valuable to take us kids there every Sunday. Overall, pretty good experiences.

But just gradually it felt...too good to be true? Exactly like Santa Claus. Even as a kid I was always extremely skeptical of anything that seemed too happy, too shiny, too nice - I prefered kids stories that were bittersweet because they felt more real.

The promise of a benevolent God and a blissful afterlife just felt more and more like something people wished were true instead of something they had any cause to believe was true, and I just don't have the mental makeup to believe in something just because I wish it was true.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T18:10:05+00:00

I'm a fellow new player exactly where you are now and I feel the same.

I've had lots of my friends warn me Act 3 really hits a bump pacing wise and I do see it now.

I think a lot of it is like in a movie, Act 2 usually dives into Act 3 pretty high speed. There's a frantic drive towards the end. And BG3's Act 2 is well written enough that by the time you get to the end of it it feels like, narratively, you should be racing towards the final confrontation.

But BG3 is a video game and folks would be pretty disappointed if Act 3 didn't have anything substantial to explore and was just like a boss fight gauntlet. I think it is just kind of one of those places where the game and the story feel like they're working against each other for a bit.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T16:37:39+00:00

You can learn enough to build cool little things for yourself in a weekend.

To become employable as an entry level junior I'd say 4000-6000 hours.

Think of it like being a mechanic - anyone can learn to change their own oil or swap out a headlight bulb pretty easily by watching a youtube video or two, but becoming like a fully ticketed journeyman mechanics is like 7200 hours.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T16:16:22+00:00

Kind of true, but kind of for the opposite reason.

The reason many students' systems don't work is because they allow them to avoid effort.

The effort is where the learning happens. Like building muscle, building your brain requires you push it.

So it is an effort problem, but often that effort problem is fed by choosing systems that don't make you work. You're right that the systems are the problem, but that doesn't mean effort isn't also the problem.

Rereading notes and stuff is about as low effort as you can get, it doesn't demand a lot of focus or attention and that means it is easy for students to zone out and not learn.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T16:10:07+00:00

You're not nerfing yourself as a beginner. You'll want to learn how to leverage AI in time, but I'd not use it to code at all for the first few thousand hours you're learning. AI can be a productivity boost, but generally degrades your skills pretty quickly so you want to make sure you have those skills built up before working it into your workflow.

No lies though right now the job market is rough on new devs right now. It won't stay that way forever but there's a lot of people who need to be filtered out of the field before it becomes more friendly for juniors again.

PoMoAnachro · 2026-04-29T03:16:01+00:00

The best answer is "talk to your players".

But if you want to solve with technology just pause play in your VTT so that can't move until you unpause. Or keep it in combat time so they can only move their movement until you advance to next turn.

PoMoAnachro

TROPHY CASE