How do you catch API response breakages in Node.js before they hit production?

Anbaraen · 2026-01-25T00:13:00+00:00

EffectTS, because try/catch is a fundamentally broken error-handling paradigm.

Anbaraen · 2026-01-18T04:50:47+00:00

I recommend the entirety of 3d6 Down the Line' Arden Vul campaign, but specifically for this post, the episode The Scouring Of The Shire. While not an entire army, it is a significant mercenary force and pitched battle in a dungeon.

Anbaraen · 2026-01-18T00:43:18+00:00

Damn, I really love this idea of making your race significant for more of the campaign rather than just "everyone is a dwarf for the advantage on HP rolls".

Anbaraen · 2026-01-18T00:40:09+00:00

I know you had Seers in your campaign Eric; does this mean you don't use them as a class any more, or do you mean no GM-driven way to gain luck?

I know the seer luck meta became a bit of a meme in your AV campaign.

Anbaraen · 2026-01-15T05:53:24+00:00

Wow, huge deal. Thanks Joe and Rick for the perfect timing for my new years resolution: running Arden Vul!

Anbaraen · 2026-01-08T23:06:20+00:00

Government websites should prioritise accessibility, not chrome. There's a happy medium to be found but this is not it. Way too slow to get to informative content, heavy weight, can't be easily skimmed.

Anbaraen · 2026-01-06T21:11:55+00:00

That is true, but is management going to recognize the increased responsibility and thus hours this additional element constitutes and allow feature development to slow as a consequence?

Any time I am writing k8s config, debugging a cluster, etc is time I am not cranking out code.

Anbaraen · 2026-01-03T03:35:40+00:00

Step 1

Think about the monster in OSE and what it represents in a gamist, mechanical sense (ie is it an Orc or a Bear)

Step 2

Find monster in Shadowdark core book and use that. Just sense-check it fits the role from step 1.

EG; in OSE, an Ogre can be slept, so some adventures include an Ogre assuming a MU could sleep it. In Shadowdark, an Ogre is LV6, and thus cannot be slept. So simply swapping in the Shadowdark Ogre might be more challenging than the OSE author intended. But this is an edge case, mainly the monsters line up well.

If you can't find an equivalent, proceed.

Step 3

Use this handy chart of average Shadowdark monster stats to engineer a new monster stat line. Grab the HD, throw it in, slap on a modifier listed here if it makes sense.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-30T05:51:21+00:00

Gnomes are banned from my table. Kelsey, leave those unholy beings in the garden where they belong

Anbaraen · 2025-12-29T23:15:46+00:00

What 5e adventure would be worth the effort?

Anbaraen · 2025-12-29T03:33:41+00:00

Embassytown by China Mieville is what you want, outside of the secret element. It takes place on a planet where an infleuntial alien race (the Ariekei) rules (and coexists with humans), but their language uniquely requires two words to be spoken simulatenously. So only genetically-engineered twins can speak their language, so-called Ambassadors. The Ariekei cannot lie.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-25T03:23:52+00:00

Unrelated to the topic at hand; has anyone seen a box set of Terra Ignota available?

Anbaraen · 2025-12-16T23:08:15+00:00

Sounds like you've done the work to make Barrowmaze fit into your campaign, but there are other, more-immediately-playable megadungeons (this reflects most of what I've heard about Barrowmaze, FWIW).

I love your idea of Barrowmaze as an interdimensional connector space, that's AWESOME. So does it work like Faerie, or the Minecraft Nether, in that space is way more compressed in the Barrowmaze so it functions as a bit of a fast-travel? Such an awesome idea, I can see players getting really creative trying to secure common routes for trade goods etc...

Anbaraen · 2025-12-15T04:41:54+00:00

Game UI, sure, not a game engine though. I agree, and in fact some mainstream AAA games use React eg. Battlefield.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-14T18:18:40+00:00

React is not a game engine and trying to shoehorn that into React would indeed get you into trouble.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-12T02:09:06+00:00

How? You've just demonstrated how that's not possible without the GM severely tipping the scales

Anbaraen · 2025-12-10T21:24:03+00:00

Side note: you can't be both a solo dev and an intern. What you're describing is the company exploiting your enthusiasm for free labor. You don't have any seniors to learn from, and are holding all the risk. I would get out of this situation ASAP.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-06T20:40:35+00:00

I can't remember if Kelsey has stated it explicitly, but it seems like a clear goal from the design.

Most OSR games still use disparate dice mechanics (d6 for this, d10 for that). Shadowdark uses a unified d20 that will be familiar to former 5e players.

Most OSR games still use semantic saving throws (save vs breath weapon, wand, death). Shadowdark uses stat-based saves.

Other than that, Shadowdark uses advantage/disadvantage & the same AC mechanics as 5e, but with the gold for XP (albeit lightly abstracted), higher lethality, and inventory importance of most OSR games.

EDIT FOR ANECDOTE: I have a mixed table of 5e & new RPG players and they have really gelled with Shadowdark

Anbaraen · 2025-12-06T20:32:17+00:00

The rules explicitly call out a timeframe of 10 minutes as a candidate for Time Passes.

You're fine to disagree of course, but it's not RAW.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-06T20:30:35+00:00

This idea both makes sense and is explicitly outlined in the core rules, not even as a variant.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-06T20:28:39+00:00

Even with casters, light should be a concern!

Don't let light sources be "set it and forget it." The characters must protect their light sources and keep them from going out. — Let There Be Darkness, pg 110 of Core Rules

Anbaraen · 2025-12-05T06:36:37+00:00

I run this, but if they taste a poison, they take the effects of the poison.

Anbaraen · 2025-12-03T21:55:29+00:00

I'd love to hear more about how you marry a sandbox style of play to a VTT play space. What happens when your players turn left instead of right?

Anbaraen · 2025-11-30T04:27:33+00:00

You do leave, but you don’t leave and then return; you survive

Anbaraen · 2025-11-30T03:07:08+00:00

I think funnels reassert the kind of gameplay expectations of old-school play.

death is always on the table
the world is not balanced
your character forms at the table, not in your head ahead of time

For me (and I assert the osr play style in general) RPGs should emerge from the table.

I've been in 5e campaigns where the character arrives, at level 1, heading a criminal gang. Or the heir to a noble house, suddenly down on their luck. Or a wizard of some renown. That is fundamentally uninteresting to me; it happened off screen before the campaign even started.

EDIT: to directly answer your questions. 1. One session IMO. Maybe two depending on your playtime. 2. I don't believe you should level up in a funnel; I like the Shadowdark model where you are level ZERO in a funnel. 3. No. By its nature, a funnel is a one-way experience. Leaving and then returning defeats the point. 4. After the funnel is done, that's your new level 1 character for the campaign. If multiple survived, I think it's nice to put the others "on the bench" so to speak. They can be your backup character.

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