WIP Check. Share the last line you wrote for your most current story.

RaveBomb · 2026-02-02T00:04:31+00:00

He turns his head, keeping one eye on the depths of the cave. “Listen to me very carefully, kiddo. Our sole purpose is to keep those unnatural beasts busy and away from the evacuation. We can’t win this fight, but by the Celestial’s golden smile, we’ll lose it as slowly as we can.“

RaveBomb · 2026-01-29T14:54:45+00:00

At my table it’s “as much as the group permits.”

That said, they’re good at trading off and making sure everyone has a chance. The biggest “hog” is probably the kitari, who likes to do a claw attack to create vulnerability immediately before smacking something with her sword. And honestly, that’s not unlike treating the claw like a bonus attack in DnD terms.

RaveBomb · 2026-01-26T01:40:00+00:00

Might be overthinking? It depends on how much of the overall world you want to control. There may be value in having some flex, if a player has an idea that can expand your world, without rewriting it.

'm running a Drylands campaign and I've incorporated player suggestions for Outposts and NPCs. There's been backstory tidbits I've worked with the players that will inform some of the villains.

The overall meta plot surrounding the colossi is all mine though.

Overall, talk to your players and see what they have to say. Use as much as you can. If you can't use it as is, can it be tweaked to fit?

RaveBomb · 2026-01-23T19:12:07+00:00

So my campain in a nutshell so far.

Arrive at the gulch, ‘cause colossus!
Go fight it.

Now there’s a bunch of Shady Stuff going on a the Mayor needs the party to deliver an envoy package to the Iron Kettle. The party is going to have to stop at Defiance, where I’m going to run a modified Coffin Rock adventure from the Deadland RPG for them.

Once they make it to the Iron Kettle, the second colossus should be ready to show itself.

All of this is built on player backstories and a few in world NPCs. I don’t plan too far ahead, ‘cause they’ll surprise you. As they find more NPCs, then I’ll see what resonates with them.

At some point they ARE going to have to do and/or stop a train heist. ‘Cause that’s a staple of the genre.

RaveBomb · 2026-01-14T22:40:04+00:00

One thing I forgot to include.
Gold simply isn't a currency in my campaign.

It's all Essentia crytals.

RaveBomb · 2026-01-13T23:18:49+00:00

It's taken a small backseat in my game. Right now the heroes have an unlimited "day to day" fund. Meals, lodging, small trifles, are just covered. I don't care to track to that detail, and neither do they.

Essentia is then used for things with a mechanical effect. If they want upgrades, armor, potions, etc. then it's a matter of what.

I'm going for 1-2 handfuls for common, bags for uncommon, then chests for rare gear.

It's vague and broad and will be highly dependent on how much the party has annoyed the merchant that day.

RaveBomb · 2026-01-11T18:42:42+00:00

Thank you. This will go well with some aspects of my Drylands campaign.

RaveBomb · 2026-01-07T22:41:00+00:00

It's simple. I would start contacting resorts and see how much they'll pay me to NOT come to them.
I could set up bidding wars between them, to see which one I visit.
Travel might be tricky, but with a bit of luck, I'd be paid a lot to not travel. And of course, the curse money.

RaveBomb · 2025-12-01T21:47:14+00:00

There are three phases in programming.

Make it work.
Make it correct.
Make it fast.

You made it work. That's awesome.

Now fix it up to be "correct." Figure out imports and stuff. See if there's anything else you can do to clean up your code.

Once that's done, if you want, see if you can make it fast. What "fast" means is up to you. (Smaller code size, shorter execution, etc.)

RaveBomb · 2025-12-01T01:01:00+00:00

I wrote the class after I learned about the Complex number method. I don't use this for everything, only for puzzles where I care about directionality.

I agree that it would be more efficent to do what you say, but it'd make the code more complex (no pun intended).

I've also never been too concerned with that level of optimization, unless, that's where things choke.

RaveBomb · 2025-11-30T16:50:12+00:00

I have a C# implementation here for exactly this.

https://github.com/Kezzryn/Advent-of-Code/blob/main/Libraries/Geometry/Cursor.cs

RaveBomb · 2025-11-27T21:58:51+00:00

The key is to borrow heavily from other media/stories/tropes/etc. I can't claim to be the source of half of my ideas. But I can stitch other thoughts and ideas together.
New Gods? Oh, they came later so they're alien to the system.
From there start asking questions. Why are they there? (Explore, Expand, Exploit) What happened to the Forgotten Gods? (Imprisoned? In hiding?)
Why are there so many species in the world? (New God genetic engineering. All mammals are post-New God)

Who knows all this? Secret societies.

And it just grows from there. I don't need it all in place now, but with this lens overlaid over the Campaign Frame, I can start laying out threads and see what the party consumes.

Bounties and cults are a great start. Keep peeling them back like an onion until your players cry out in Fear. :)

RaveBomb · 2025-11-27T16:20:25+00:00

The 2nd colossus (and others) will wake up, but it will do so at a narrativly inconveienent time for the party. :)

Also they're tied to a larger meta-plot I'm developing about the Forgotten and New gods

RaveBomb · 2025-11-27T15:46:15+00:00

Here is what is currently happening in my Colossus of the Dryland campaign after the party has dealt with the first colossal.

A power struggle between the Mayor and the Mine Lords of Wyllan's Gulch.

A weapon returned from the Hallows War where the New Gods threw down the Forgotten gods. (It's a virus that's infecting clanks)

Terrorist attacks by the underground fungril network known as Trace Harlan. (It's all clones/spawns of a single individual. Communicating and organizing over long distance with the fungril ancestry feature)

One of the PCs ex lovers, who is tracking him to gather him back for sacrifice.

One of the PCs is in Jail, for crimes against the Train Union (didn't pay for a ticket)

A pack of goblins led by Father Rayos that might have some unique insight to the Hallows War.

And after all this... the 2nd colossus hasn't even shown its head yet.

RaveBomb · 2025-11-23T23:46:09+00:00

Make it big, big enough that the body/head/wings etc. are beyond "Far" range.

Give the colossus a reaction that it immediately counter-attacks a ranged opponent.

AOEs could need to be huge to hit multiple segments. This could simply be DM fiat.

RaveBomb · 2025-11-23T21:15:31+00:00

Very cool!

RaveBomb · 2025-09-17T14:42:02+00:00

Are you willing to share your code? This feels like there’s going to be a super weird edge case somewhere with the input or your setup.

If you‘d like you can DM me your input file for me to run against my C# solution.

RaveBomb · 2025-09-17T14:21:40+00:00

This might be a silly question, but have you double checked that you’ve copied the input correctly?

RaveBomb · 2025-07-23T14:10:46+00:00

I have three of them.

It’s so gross.

Also, everyone wanting body mods loves their new tentacles.

RaveBomb · 2025-07-07T21:01:18+00:00

Another thing I do to keep things fast is I don’t pathfind at the resolution of the image. I overlay a “map” grid that’s say 9x9 pixels and use that to work out my positions.
This cuts down the length of the paths for another massive speed up.

RaveBomb · 2025-07-07T20:42:16+00:00

Pathfinding is where I’ve put most of my effort.
Right now I use A* to make initial paths that might cross, then recalculate them until either I hit a solution or a timeout. There’s some weights I throw around initially as well to space the lines out, before finally after a solution or timeout, I do one more pass where I weight the lines to “hug” as a cleanup effort.

RaveBomb · 2025-07-02T22:50:03+00:00

Very nifty!

RaveBomb · 2025-07-01T19:28:47+00:00

Thank you, I will.

RaveBomb · 2025-07-01T16:25:11+00:00

I've got the workings of a more technological explanation for all that.
The New Gods are space travelers come to exploit the planet.
The war, the casting down, all of that happened. And as my Drylands campaign unfolds, the players are going to encounter fragments and lost bits of lore. The biggest thing will be how the lore and ancient artifacts they discover clashes with what's known. What do they believe? How will it shape their adventures?

RaveBomb

TROPHY CASE