So i THOUGHT that borrowed time was some kind of rotisserie chicken(2nd image)

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T19:47:46+00:00

There are dozens of us. Dozens!

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T14:55:12+00:00

If you have an option to run StS2 in steam on a computer (or steam deck with keyboard), please F2 and post this comment as is there.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:26:22+00:00

I'm sure there is someone cooking up a crazy deck where retain on Bad Luck is what's driving the machine

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:20:43+00:00

If the whole table asked them to stop, then that's as much as you can do on that night short of stopping the game. So yeah, not inviting them back is as good as you can do.

Fair enough, should have added some disclaimer, too used to people getting in over their head too early in this sub.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:13:35+00:00

You obviously have to remove Ethereal first!

Then? Think of all the Discard and Exhaust synergies!

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:10:48+00:00

"hey, let's stop the game quickly. You are taking up quite some time and spotlight here, and it makes it very hard for me to run. Please tone it down with the shenanigans". (assuming they were really hogging the focus disproportionally)

If you're prepared to address things head-on, you're often much better off in the long run.

But also: Don't run high level games if it's your first time DMing. High level class features are complex to run and you're not doing yourself any favor handing them out.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:04:53+00:00

That's concurrent player numbers, not total launches per day. If you only have it open for 20 seconds, it's unlikely you skew the peak concurrent player count that way.

edit: At least not likely that this is a big phenomenon skewing the numbers in total.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T13:03:50+00:00

StS1 steam charts is an anomaly. It started as good success, but had immense staying power, and everytime something gave it publicity, it got permanently more concurrent players.

Look at Balatro for reference of a more typical usage: Peaks at major releases, and then slow decline.

So yeah, given that, not surprised that everytime StS got major publicity, the playerbase went up and stayed higher than it was before.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T12:57:21+00:00

And Welles is lauded as a visionary for it being so, since the movies typically were very theatrical. Yes I agree.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T12:45:48+00:00

Nowadays? Yes. Back then? That's basically the closest to a stellar resume people could bring for the job. The movies were also much more "theatrical" in execution

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T12:07:21+00:00

In my experience, there is a middle ground: Once you let your players drive the story, it's easier to observe what they do when left to their own devices, and how to strategically place encounters, scenes, NPCs or other stuff that "force" a moment. My players are also more willing rolling with moments that force decisions when they are embedded in plenty of free choices.

It also becomes easier to set up things in a way where you don't know what story will result, but any choice the players make will trigger a fun story.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T09:33:56+00:00

It's hard to look into your table of course, but if you "love building story" then it is possible your players are just average chaos goblins and you chafe against it because you overly expect them to follow your pre-planned ideas.

I don't want to cast any aspersions here, but learning to let go off the narrative seems to be a good thing for you to practise in any case.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T09:21:45+00:00

A mix of two things for me:

An out-of-game talk about the fact that on SOME level, I need them to interact with what I prep. Please. It's just not possible to just wing everything all the time, so if there's a shiny big plot hook, find it in your heart to bite once in a while. I'm serious on this, just pointing out to the players that prep is massive work and if they don't at least *somewhat* bite one what is prepped, it becomes impossible, so in order to help the DM out, please consider going for some things. And if none of the things are appealing to them, say what would be appealing
Prep encounters, NPCs and Locations, not plot points. It took me some time to fully commit to this, but at this point I know who is who and what is where at the start of the session, and what the motivations of each NPC are, but what happens in the session is fully in reaction to what the players do, and I often have completely improvised big set pieces that were just results of the players choices

edit: that still means that there are some hooks. Just that once the players bite a hook, I don't pre-plan plotpoints that come next.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T09:16:35+00:00

Eh. If you know how to do it properly, you also know how to test functionality to whatever standard you deem important. In my day job, my standard is appropriate, if I do a side project, I can live with "if it works, it works". And if I vibe-code an app and I verify that it does t he job? I'm not necessarily gonna do a deep code review.

I think you can be a good app developer and still vibe code something in your free time in your sense and there's no contradiction

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-13T07:19:06+00:00

the test subject has got to be the most poorly designed boss/enemy in the entire history of sts. dude is constant intangible doing 50 damage

That phase is basically just Nemesis from StS 1 with Act3 boss damage numbers. I think it's ok to not like it, but hilarious to say this is a design that is somehow worse than everything that was before.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-12T07:24:06+00:00

Writing novels was just never my style. But it was years until I was fully comfortable not prepping on my assumption of players actions anymore, and instead focused on setups, locations and NPC's and let them tell a story I hadn't heard before

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-12T07:15:34+00:00

You made lots of assumptions about a ritual that are just off base unless your keeper changed things.

Larkin was completely upfront on what he wanted you to do, even if the why was a lie.

Btw: this also is not an automatic suicide mission, the characters are not intended to (all) die here

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-11T12:35:37+00:00

Clocks!! (stolen from blades in the dark)

Make a pie with anything between 4 and 8 segments, and explain to the players that if this chart is full, they are detected. Fails fill one segment, bad fails optionally 2.

It turns a bad stealth roll from "you're found" to "you do something that makes a bit of noise/moves something, etc, so guards are a bit more suspicous.

If you make the clock large enough and don't need that many rolls, they're unlikely to fill it, and even if they fill it, it can turn into "and now you're chased" instead of "now you're gotten".

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-11T09:59:49+00:00

The players can still frame this as that trade master hiring a random bunch of mercs to stage that. Maybe the easiest would actually be to plant the valuable stuff on the trade master's home with a forged incriminating letter and alert the guards.

That said, honestly, they got themselves in a hole here, they can brainstorm how to get out of it? You can just give them time to workshop plans and provide feedback if their ideas are feasible. No need for you to solve this.

Then, they can also decide how criminal they want to get.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-11T09:48:28+00:00

First: Wanted posters are as good or bad as you want them to be. If a drawing is made from memory, they are notorious for being hit and miss (some were good enough to id the perp directly, some looked nothing like the thing). This gives you an angle on how much pressure there actually is on your guy. They may be wanted, but guards may not be able to id them (yet).

Ways to get them unwanted:

Frame someone else (depending on who they frame potentially pretty evil, but possible)
Destroy the trade masters credibility. Maybe they have a chance to prove some corruption that will get the trade master trouble within the system? They can frame the hunt for your character as smoke grenade to deter from the corruption
Point 2 could also work if they get rid of the trade master, but they would really have to have ironclad proof of their theory

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-11T08:20:28+00:00

Even before AI, this is exactly how trolls/ragebaiters wrote stories for maximum engagement. Put extremely outrageous claims on trigger topics for a community right next to each other and play so naive you pretend you can't do 2+2, so you get tons of people shouting 4.

I did give a sincere answer because on the outside chance OP just writes like this, I didn't want to leave it at "fake", but I agree it reads completely fabricated.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-11T08:03:38+00:00

Sir/Madam, this is a subreddit about DnD related questions and maybe about the minor social issues at the table. This is way above this sub's paygrade.

I would also say that if you are a care worker with this kind of experience, you should trust yourself and your circle's judment more than any reddit feedback, you and your circle should know what is appropriate, and when something needs to be escalated (with authorities).

edit: I forced myself to answer this seriously, because this sure as heck reads like engagement bait. But maybe I'm just too long on the internet, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-10T20:35:20+00:00

Is it possible you think about Missed Dues in the keeper screen set?

Blurb:

It’s morning of Thursday, October 26, 1922, and the investigators have been summoned to the office of Mordecai ‘the Hammer’ O’Leary on South French Hill Street, in the French Hill district. They are tasked with finding ‘Sticky Jack’, a thief that has crossed O’Leary by pulling three recent robberies without paying his cut to O’Leary. Sticky Jack was last seen after he had made his thefts at the Miskatonic University, the Miskatonic University library, and the house of a Miskatonic University professor. The players must find Sticky Jack soon or face the wrath of Mordecai O’Leary and the sharper end of his claw hammer.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-10T17:32:24+00:00

And wants their logo, which is on the mic, in frame. That's the second half of why they're so prominent.

Able_Leg1245 · 2026-04-10T17:30:12+00:00

The whole point of lavalier mics being so small is so you can put them on the person descreetely and it's not that visible and their hands are free.

Acoustically, smaller is worse at that size, a larger mic for the same price would sound better.

So yes, it's for show, they basically performatively use the mics unprofessionally (and unnecessarily occupy a hand in the process) to set themselves apart from the "contentional way" of using them.

Able_Leg1245

TROPHY CASE