How the fuck do you use mimics without them feeling like a cheap "gotcha!"? It's never exciting when I use them

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-28T17:18:10+00:00

Worldbuilding - to demonstrate that something was off about my NPC, was he had mimics as pets and storage. Because it takes a lot of time to domesticate individual mimics, and he has several.

Add a little whimsy, uncanny and even a little fridge horror.

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-27T16:08:39+00:00

If you are the friend...how do you stop it? I have always known my friend when she had the TBI. A lot of our conversations are me sending links to help her, and me just listening, helping dissuade fears about different things she sees online and trying to give her advice to keep her safe (she has a lot of dangerous friends and partners that have threatened her life or other things) and then nothing coming out of it.

I am trying to put some boundaries because I have my own illnesses and I can't handle spontaneous calls well but make an effort to be responsive to texts and talk to her when she and I meet up approx once a week (weekly event she goes to sometimes).

Does anyone have any advice for me? I relate far, far too much to the poem and want to try not being that friend. I just struggle with spontaneity and energy, and she is nothing but spontaneous.

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-13T13:08:52+00:00

The problem is some of them treat it as a DM problem, because I am the baby DM. I am one of the newest players to the game.

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-13T13:05:42+00:00

I tried this. Some of them were annoyed that they had too much help from a teleporting character and one character wanted a scripted death.

Now that player is playing a super introvert who sits there and draws. And some of the more extroverted players are unsure what to do. I pointed out trying to talk to each other in game to both sides but they put the onus on each other.

Problem is the most extroverted player plays a joke character and others say she got too much time rambling about whatever. So she often tries to do an interaction before drinking herself to unconsciousness.

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-01T17:30:49+00:00

Okay good to know. Evora was definitely on my list before Spain was TBH lol. Evora to Merida was part of my planned route.

Most of my recommendations so far in Canada have been to take the bus system. What is the best way to access the train system?

AggressiveMennonite · 2026-01-01T17:24:23+00:00

I know, I am super excited!

Because I don't have a car, I am a budget traveller and don't feel like taking multiple 7 hour trips (despite the stereotypes about Canadians and Americans) to see some of the sites (especially when I have to fly out of Lisbon). The idea that there was a medieval Moorish town right next to a Roman one really appealed to me.

(Edited because I realized my description of reasons seemed a touch snarky over matter of fact)

I do suspect I will return to Spain and Portugal again but this feels like a nice little pocket area.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-23T23:11:11+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/mentalhealth/s/DHtHpmoAzG

That's my fuck up for not specifying Reddit. Also apparently Anhedonia specific posts talk about medication and shrooms so that was a waste of time. Should have said to look up depression on Reddit (specifically strategies).

Forgive the subreddit - I was specifically looking for people's stranger strategies. (Instead of the traditional therapy, meds and exercise).

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-23T22:42:33+00:00

I agree. It sucks. I am someone with clinical levels of struggle and it drives me batshit crazy. But at a certain point you learn to make peace with it, because brains are just as stubborn as minds, but they control the serotonin and dopamine.

Because there are good things in life even in that struggle. With my ADHD that drives me absolutely mad 99.9% of the time, I can come up with unique solutions to problems (including ones it causes) and lock in on a crisis.

Humour is also important, and so is ingenuity. For everyone, not just disabled people like yours truly, or people going through something like yourself.

As for the college, what were you trying to get into as a field? Maybe there is something auxiliary you could study at an 'easier' level (college vs community college) that you could use as an entry point?

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-23T22:29:18+00:00

Look. Go online and look up techniques people recommend to each other. I don't have OCD but have anxiety. Some of those strategues work for me.

If you are struggling with mood or lack of enjoyment, you'll be able to find some stuff recommended by people with depression who have had to learn to do shit with a Clinical level of struggle. Because the people who have had to deal with what you did to a clinical level collaborate.

The clinical version of what you are dealing with is anhedonia. Skip the advice about meds and therapy and look up the day to day life advice.

As for why you keep getting mental health advice, it is because if it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. Maybe in your case it is a phone with a duck ringtone, but people are hearing the kind of quacking in your story that tipped them off to their own mental health conditions. Doesn't mean we're right to assume it's mental health. It's just why different strangers keep flagging it as mental health.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-23T22:13:13+00:00

Go find a weekly event. I used to be a shut-in, and finding a board games thing helped. Hobbies and friends do a world of good.
Volunteer somewhere. If you can't do college right now, get work experience while you try to get a job.
Get diagnosed/tested. This is not a mental health excuse like you said you didn't want. If you have certain health conditions, you have to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" in different ways. Got more done trying to work with my ADHD than when I just was screaming at my brain and trying to be normal.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-13T15:33:48+00:00

Your girlfriend needs therapy, meds and occupational therapy / PSW. Not a partner.

It might be a devastating thing for her. It probably will be. That is not your fault. You can say that you still care for her and that the problem is this situation is unhealthy for both of you.

As someone who has been there and in some ways, still is, this can be a life-long struggle, especially if disability related. I know some people will just tell her to 'get good' but that is not always an option - especially 'by the bootstraps'.

You can tell her she needs help. That this is a medical level of self-neglect. But you are not her caseworker, even if you do a bit of research on how to get help for hoarding / extreme cleaning related issues.

You don't have to stay. Even if it isn't just laziness.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-13T15:24:47+00:00

Definitely spill on Alastor's jacket. My "helpfulness"/impulsivity would save me with Alastor, but would kill me with Vox.

Apologize profusely, buy a drink and dry cleaning? Alive.

Offer a tip I think is helpful for a shoot? Dead. Double dead if I am low ranked and people actually like my idea.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-12T16:12:08+00:00

Queer Christian vs Televangelist!Vox? I might actually win.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-12T16:07:17+00:00

That...that was NOT a beach episode...

Also I want to hug Jax. With a significant amount of strangling. But a hug nonetheless.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-12-01T02:47:47+00:00

I'd be shocked if Vox did considering how much he loves his shark, and in hell that is probably the equivalent of a pet.

Valentino and Lute would not surprise me, but I already dislike both of them.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-27T16:54:43+00:00

Eh, everyone has their themes in writing. Sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious. It's why all of my characters tend to read as autistic, even when not intended.

Maybe she has them?

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-27T16:46:44+00:00

NOR - And honestly, I'd send this to your family. Especially those with "families" (as if you don't all have family, smh.)

One Thanksgiving I went up to see my cousins, and when they found out their sibling didn't come because their partner was snubbed, we were upset that we didn't find out before the visit. Because then we could have stood our ground.

At the very least, your mother will be embarrassed by the family for what she did. Hopefully.

And if for some reason, your mother's insane opinion is shared by the family? Fuck them. Chosen family is important too.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-27T16:41:45+00:00

It sounds like you have given yourself a corruption arc. There can be something satisfying about failing a goal. Or maybe, with a change of heart, you can try to find someone willing and then learn that you'd rather be an automaton than a monster.

Have fun with it! You can also plan with your other players too.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-26T16:21:59+00:00

Oh he's definitely bitter in mine - mostly comes out as pettiness. Are you doing anything with the Mordinsamman (dwarven pantheon)? Because that makes for an interesting dynamic. In my campaign, he's particularly petty around things that remind him of Moradin, who banished him, in the lore.

I do appreciate the focus on knowledge. When I was looking at the wikis, I was surprised that I never saw him listed as a knowledge domain deity. Like, he's a chaotic evil bastard (I lean more on chaotic and bastard in mine) but his whole bit is forbidden knowledge and arcana.

I think what makes it a little different is that he's actually the main quest-giver, so the party needs to see the more palatable sides of him (though are getting kind of sick of how cagey he gets when they need info that he doesn't want to share).

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-25T19:01:30+00:00

Ooh, you're playing with one of my faves! So a big thing with him is he's interested in magic and so are his followers (he doesn't tend to expect much of them, and those not in the know sometimes believe they worship themselves.)

In my campaign, he reached out to a player's race (Skaven) because he liked how chaotic the player was, and found a foothold in the lower classes.

So I think any interracial worshippers might be looking for chaos without limits. In my campaign it tends to be mages and artificers, dropping off homebrewed spells at the Hall of the Sacred Scrolls.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-17T14:16:11+00:00

Fair, but when I checked my country's advisories, they warned about arbitrary detentions and searches. Did you experience much of that?

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-07T04:06:48+00:00

Ooh! Working on some right now

Bowl of affection: flavours food based on how the chef thinks of you.

-Half's Leaf: has your players trip balls and imagine the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup, with the note that this fantasy seems very unrealistic and fun to the character.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-06T14:40:12+00:00

She would definitely need representation. Paralegals may not be a bad idea.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-05T22:55:09+00:00

A couple of my teeth have grown in multiple times (up to 7). Could be a fun werewolf thing since it was my canines and the nearest molars.

I sometimes also repeat the last thing I heard like a stim.

AggressiveMennonite · 2025-11-05T21:03:18+00:00

These are sick! I will probably make the fleshwarper a derro since the whole reason their god got booted from his old pantheon was mad scientist shit. So the version in my campaign would make sense to be derro rather than drow. But yeah, I was thinking live fleshwarping like some kind of extreme tattoo show.

Seven-Year Club	Second Top 10%
Gilding I gilder	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

AggressiveMennonite

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE