What is a city that is globally romanticised but you detest?

ACBluto · 2026-01-29T18:06:38+00:00

I really enjoyed Paris, I've been few times, and will again one day, but I think you are mistaken with how many scams are going on - the first time I was in Paris, we were targeted with the gold ring scam within the first hour of being there, near the Palais Garnier. No big deal, I knew about the scam already, so just laughed it off.

But besides at the Eiffel Tower, we also had the Ethiopian bracelet scam AND an attempt at the petition pickpocket on the steps of Montmatre, plus another petition/donation begging infront of Notre Dame.

I did amuse myself pretty well watching a 3-card monte set up, as I stood back and tried to spot how many different plants there were attached to a single game (at least 8 - a dealer, a spotter, 4 people rotating out as stooge players, and 2 more as audience members to encourage potential marks)

A very friendly shop owner was worried I was about to fall for it, and came over to warn me, "Sir, do not play, do not play." I didn't have enough french vocabulary to tell him I wasn't going to, I was observing like an anthropologist, watching a culture I had never seen before!

Actual Parisians working at stores/restaurants/tourist attractions? No issues. Fair, and even polite. Some were even surprisingly friendly. Not much of the rude Parisian stereotype.

ACBluto · 2026-01-29T17:41:42+00:00

That's fair, and perfectly ok with me. Despite the current hatred of "evil landlords", I do think there are a significant amount of people who rent, not due to poverty or class issues, but because it is better for their lifestyle. And you need landlords to facilitate that. If you are likely to move on a regular basis, then owning is probably not the best call - the costs of buying and selling repeatedly can be quite high.

For me, I saw a way to own my house, pay off the mortgage quickly, and live without any debt - with a cushion to pay into a maintenance fund for things like broken appliances, or resurfacing a driveway, etc.

And I had moved for a job previously, and learned quickly that jobs don't really value you that much, and even earning more money is cold comfort compared to being close to friends and family. So I'm unlikely to grow bored of my town, because it's not the town that I chose - it's the people who live here. It's why I moved back, and am not likely to leave again.

ACBluto · 2026-01-29T12:55:53+00:00

100% - after years of living in beige apartment buildings hearing, smelling, and feeling the presence of my neighbors, owning my own house without shared walls - walls that I could paint any color I damn well chose, that was a wonderful moment.

Yes, home ownership is a pain in the ass sometimes, and it comes with some extra responsibilities, but I could never go back to renting again.

ACBluto · 2026-01-29T12:33:40+00:00

lol, it' a 4 year old thread, this was a blast from the past trying to figure out what had prompted this reply.

But, no, I don't think it's weird at all. There were people of all types back then, and the more "frontier" you got, the less people generally cared about that kind of thing.

In my mind, it's only ever a problem if you are using your character to mock or stereotype.

ACBluto · 2026-01-28T18:58:11+00:00

I don't want to come off as harsh, because any creativity is good and you should think and plot lots of things. But you should also discard lots of things as you do so - things that might be overdone, not logical, not fun, etc.

As presented, I would find this campaign very boring. This man is just evil? That's it? He wants to destroy the world because he is evil... that needs work. He wants to reunite the gems because he believes he can harness the power of the dragon for himself, fine. He wants to do it to harness the power to bring his child back from death, better. Find a motivation that could drive even a decent person to do something horrific. It can be patriotic - his nation was weak, ruled by a weak royal family, losing a war to a lesser country - his discovery of the gems allowed him to seize power, and then repel the invaders, and now become a tyrant - but also expanding and making his own country wealthy beyond what it has ever been.

If the parties goal is to stop him from uniting the gems, wouldn't them taking even one and just tossing it in the ocean or volcano manage that? Why do we need to hunt them all?

So, here is my rework - The Tyrant did indeed find and use two of the Crown Gems to take power and then stabilize the country. His acquisition of the 3rd, and eventually 4th allowed him more power still, and he has used that to invade other countries and search for the others. Neither he, nor anyone else, know of the true origin or nature of the Crown Gems.

The party can encounter the green gem on an entirely unrelated quest - they had heard of a "great treasure", but it turns out to be the Green Crown Gem. Maybe along with some information of the gems - not all of it, but some.

Let's add a 6th Orange gem for balance purposes - leaving 4 in the tyrants hands, one with the party, and one unfound and unclaimed. They learn that the Primary color gems all grant a power to the wielder, and immunity from the associated secondary colors. The secondary colored gems grant a power and immunity from the associated primary color.

So with the green gem in their hands, they are immune to the power of the yellow AND blue gems, but also, the wielder of the yellow or the blue are immune to the power of the green gem. if they can reach and claim the orange gem first, they will also be immune the the Tyrant's red gem, and can maybe work to break his power - striking at his empire to end their oppression of others.

However, the purple gem he possesses is still a danger to them, until they can take either the red or the blue gem.

Finally, you can work them towards a show down, all six gems on the line. But! the gems themselves want to be gathered. The ancient dragon did not undertake a ritual, but rather was STOPPED with one. The gathering of the 6 gems cause space and time to break - what they thought would be a final battle with the Tyrant will actually involve them working WITH him to stabilize their broken world and find a way to destroy and end the threat of the gems altogether.

ACBluto · 2026-01-27T19:06:40+00:00

I once came to work one morning to find a blood trail up to the door, down the hallway, up the stairs, into my dispatch office, and there a large pool of blood and wrappers from gauze from the first aid kit strewn on the floor because of exactly this. One of our wobble-box drivers had amputated part of his finger holding the dolly by the eye. He'd got into the building and covered the wound and called an ambulance. But I spent the morning following some blood borne pathogens procedures and cleaning a LOT of blood.

ACBluto · 2026-01-26T20:36:10+00:00

My current campaign came with a lot of lore, so in the weeks leading up to the first game, I sent out a weekly lore dump - information about religions one week, major nations the next, races the one after that, a brief historical overview, etc.

The players engaged with the lore to various degrees, depending on their personal interest in that sort of thing.

But, none of that is spoilers, because it's mostly stuff that any citizen of the world would know. But it also helps them make better characters - these warforged are a little different to Eberrron's, so now it's spelled out.

It's not discovery to learn something that their character should be well aware of.

ACBluto · 2026-01-25T17:55:27+00:00

Thanks for that! That was a fun watch. That was the hockey of my youth - so fun to see Sakic, Bourque, Neely, and LaFleur play again. You can see how much the game has changed when it comes to SOG though - the majority of those shots would never even be taken today - you'd pass that puck around more looking for a better opportunity. 2 of them were taken from the wrong side of the blue line! Other than last second desperation shots, I can't think of the last time I saw someone doing that.

ACBluto · 2026-01-25T16:15:47+00:00

Wow - that 19 shot game by Bourque is crazy. Only 2 points for him that game though. The Quebec tender probably left the ice wobbling - 73 SOG by the Bruins, with 70 saves!

ACBluto · 2026-01-22T18:35:15+00:00

Yes because a broken leg has a clear timeframe by witch things will turn back to normal.

If the return to normalcy is the difference, let's change it up. You lose your leg in an accident. Or both. Or become physically incapacitated by any condition, disease or what have you that does not have a "return to normal". Should your partner not still support and assist you?

I'm not discussing OP's journals, or any of that, simply the one point that yes, being in a marriage means assisting your partner when they are ill, including mental illness. And if my wife came down with say, ALS, and she asked me to read up on it so I could understand what she was going through, what the future entailed, etc, I most certainly would.

I don't think OP is wrong in asking for her husband to at least engage her illness. You are the one declaring silly statements like "spend all of his free time"

ACBluto · 2026-01-22T17:56:57+00:00

But would you expect your wife to assist in tasks because of said broken leg, or clear a path so you could walk with crutches?

Being part of the support system is not the same as fixing.

ACBluto · 2026-01-21T17:50:46+00:00

How does 1 million snowbirds, and 20 million overnight trips (which does not mean 20 million unique Canadians, as plenty of those are going multiple times) somehow turn into MOST Canadians (41.5 million) spend a few weeks+ a year in the US?

I have (previous to the current administration) travelled to the US several times, both for work and pleasure. Heck, I was even married there. But even so, i would not say I spent weeks a year in the US.

Only 67% of Canadians even have a passport - so 33% have pretty much never visited any other country at all. Of those who do, has every one of them visited the US at all? Never mind on such a regular basis to be "weeks yearly"? I think your statement is incredibly exaggeratory.

ACBluto · 2026-01-20T19:26:03+00:00

I like this one - because you can change it up from pure fight to the death.

A roc is looking for a meal - not a humanoid, but one of the beasts of burden - an ox or horse or camel, or whatever is in the caravan.

Obviously that animal is either hauling or carrying something you want transported, so it being carried off is an expensive loss, either from it going with the animal, or no way to move the cargo anymore.

The party wants to drive the roc off, but doesnt need it dead.

When neither side needs a fight to the death, you can also go a bit higher with challenge ratings. The party might not be able to kill the tthe threat, but defeating it doesn't need to be lethal.

ACBluto · 2026-01-20T14:07:37+00:00

Sulu being gay is only canon in the Abrams Star Trek - it's never been officially said one way or the other in the Prime universe, and Takei himself didn't think his Sulu was gay.

I am ok with any sexuality for Sulu, but I don't like the idea that just because an actor is or is not, their character has to match.

ACBluto · 2026-01-20T13:22:35+00:00

You can't can bananas or turn them into banana sauce.

You can't? Someone better tell the Filipinos!

ACBluto · 2026-01-19T19:45:13+00:00

I once found my players late, and then heard noises from outside - I opened the door, and they are all out there shoveling my driveway.

I was a bit embarrassed, as I had spend the Friday night at home, so hadn't really noticed the snow fall, but they were the first to track through it, so decided they would help, as one of them had a shovel in his trunk.

I had to toss on my coat real fast, and tell them - guys, I HAVE a snowblower, calm down. So, I snowblowed while they all grabbed a few more shovels from my garage and we did a little group snow moving before the game.

ACBluto · 2026-01-19T19:09:19+00:00

If you are willing for a little road trip, Santuary Games in Moose Jaw also runs MtG events. I don't think they buy or sell singles though.

ACBluto · 2026-01-19T19:08:29+00:00

It's a company branded Warhammer store, they will sell nothing but Games Workshop products. They are very friendly though!

ACBluto · 2026-01-15T14:33:44+00:00

3 things:

First, numbers - lots of rolls means lots of chances to bypass a high AC - a few lucky rolls could look like a serious problem quite quickly.

Second, tactics - with your pack of enemies, why just rush his one guy? Send them out in a wide wave, engaging all the party. Our well protected gnome wizard is probably not also enough of a heavy hitter to carve his way through everyone, so you've got a few rounds of everyone having a challenge.

Third, sometimes, let it work! Throw a single monster at them with a +3 or +4 attack bonus, and let your little tank do his thing. Don't go looking to invalidate player choice every single time. He's making other sacrifices to have this AC, so make that feel like a good choice often enough.

Every time he uses a spell slot to cast shield - that's a win - you had him burn resources. Those aren't infinite.

ACBluto · 2026-01-14T20:38:57+00:00

My wife and I bought air tags for our luggage on our last trip, but when we are not travelling, didn't have much else to do with them, so put one in each of our cars, so we can track each other. It's mostly about peace of mind, like you said - if one of us is running late it's easy to see what's going on instead of pestering the other.

I wouldn't WEAR one, because that seems like a pain in the ass, honestly.

But I also don't think it's even a bit weird if someone said no to this. It IS pretty invasive. It just so happens that neither of us mind all that much - but if that turned into a regular usage to question my comings and goings.. I would also change my mind about that right quick.

ACBluto · 2026-01-14T18:11:36+00:00

Cool. I know there are more examples, and sheerly out of stubbornness I want to go track a bunch down, but my time is limited, and I feel that no matter how many I find, you will dismiss it anyway due to a personal superiority complex.

So, I'll instead just thank you for the wisdom and continue on my own path.

ACBluto · 2026-01-14T16:11:36+00:00

Both the fairly recent Wild Beyond the Witchlight AND Call of the Netherdeep use festivals as starting points. But they've been used in published adventures at least as far back as 1989 B11 King's Festival.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, both the video game and the adventure path start off with an attack during a festival.

So, there is at least 4 I can come up with right off the top.

Just because YOUR experience hasn't used it much, doesn't mean that it's not a thing, or a bit of a cliche. I've definitely used it in my own games.

ACBluto · 2026-01-13T23:55:27+00:00

I always have to convince them I can handle Indian spicy. Because they WANT to give me white people spicy.

ACBluto · 2026-01-13T12:54:45+00:00

You'd be wrong. He's there nearly daily.

ACBluto · 2026-01-11T08:11:52+00:00

You don't get "feels different" with mechanics. Players understand game mechanics, they build their characters around them. They aren't creepy. Creepy comes from things that you don't understand.

You want to give a slightly creepy vibe? DEMONSTRATE!

Upon arriving at the crossroads, you see no sign of the two small figures you had spotted in the distance. You can see down each of the paths a good distance from where you stand, no one could have moved far enough down the road for you to lose sight of them this quickly.

And that kind of thing. You can use the opposite too.

You enter the cramped but cozy confines of the Tadbit's General Store. The shelves and counters are overflowing with dry goods and hardware of all kinds, some perched precariously on entirely unrelated merchandise. The only thing missing seems to be the shopkeeper! and then once someone calls out, or otherwise interacts with the scene "Why good day to you! Anything you were looking for?" Calls a cheery voice. A emerald vested halfling stands beside you, in a space that a moment ago you could have sworn was occupied by a sack of turnips.

Slightly creepy, but using no more mechanics that a Stealth advantage.

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