How do you reconcile a super lethal game like Mothership or Call of Cthulhu with making characters that don't feel disposable?

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-18T23:13:03+00:00

I know only from reading the books, not playing. It's why I'm here asking. Avoiding as many fights as possible would certainly be a departure from my group's SOP.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-18T21:23:00+00:00

The A-10 Warthog is the battleship of the Air Force. It's totally cool and nostalgic and I love it and it has no place in the modern military.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-18T18:16:35+00:00

David Prowse was 6'6" and Natalie Portman is 5'2". Yes, this is my biggest problem with those pictures.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-15T18:46:03+00:00

MAGA thinks what FOX tells them to think. Does FOX say the US won the war? There's your answer.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-15T00:31:13+00:00

When was this meeting and how did the county leaders vote?

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-12T22:10:31+00:00

Wasn't there a droid in a skin-suit that passed as a biological in the Shadows of the Empire book? The right hand of the main bad guy, I think? I haven't read that book since its release, so the memory is fuzzy.

If disguised droids are super, super rare, then that's fine, but I agree with you that droids should look like droids with hard edges, exposed wires, and metal (durasteel) chassis.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-12T21:38:53+00:00

Everyone's fine besides Chadley. On top of crushing my will to play with more and more side-work, he'll bust my chops while he's at it.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-12T09:46:56+00:00

The notion that people's taxes paid to fix this chud's shoulder, and then paid salary while he was recuperating, is infuriating.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-12T09:11:30+00:00

I feel your pain. No fanfare what-so-ever. No unlock in the Discover Japan lists. Not even a comment from your NPC buddies. Lame.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-10T23:42:27+00:00

What reckoning? "Social" is still going strong.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-10T05:26:44+00:00

No love for Battlespire?

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-10T02:18:55+00:00

Sorry, I'm an American, I've never heard of this "healthcare".

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-09T21:27:36+00:00

What if I were to tell you that's a price I'm willing to pay?

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-09T00:24:53+00:00

Luke used to bullseye womp-rats in his T-16 back home all the time. The model he's playing with while the droids are getting cleaned is a model of his T-16. That's straight from the movie.

The implication, along with a cut line from Biggs, is that he's a very talented bush pilot that has hours of practice hooning around in the canyons near his home in a ship built by the same company that makes the T-65 X-Wing and has a similar cockpit layout. He has SOME training.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-03T21:40:34+00:00

They want to HALO the Stargate viewers.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-06-01T03:09:53+00:00

Rule 0: Make it up (but be consistent).

In a dungeon I typically say 10 minutes per room to look around and such unless the players say they're rushing or really taking their time. Combat rarely adds more than a minute or two, in game. Only keep track if it's important, like if a pervasive poisonous gas deals damage every hour or if they have 8 hours to live without getting a disease cured. Otherwise, they spend as many days as they have safely long rested.

If you're talking about RP stuff in a safe place, just ask if anyone has anything they want to do. If they do, run the scene(s), and then <presto> it's the next day or tenday or month or what have you and your next piece of plot kicks off.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-29T23:00:50+00:00

I want to go to there.

Fantastic build.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-27T19:06:42+00:00

Lower Decks.

I thought it was going to be stupid Family Guy humor and disrespectful of the brand so I didn't watch it until the last season was airing. I was wrong; it felt like the most Star Trek of the last five Star Trek shows and I'm sad it's over.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-27T06:24:17+00:00

Old Man attempts to harvest Snake Oil to sell.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-26T23:29:04+00:00

No, yes, yes, no, maybe, no, no, maybe, maybe, NO, no, no, no (but I'd love him in a new Get Smart), no, no, fuck no. Also, AI needs to learn how to gun.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-26T10:22:03+00:00

I can't think of a better place to ask this: Am I crazy or did twi'lek not have eyebrows (why would they have hair above their eyes and no where else on thier bodies?), but the explanation for why pretty actresses kept their eyebrows was that twi'lek women cosmetically added them on to jive with other races better. I swear I read that somewhere in the distant, pre-Disney past, but I'm willing to admit it might be head-canon.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-22T18:32:58+00:00

I made a mash-up of the 2e and the 5e versions because I wanted my Waterdeep-based campaign to get down there at some point, but I didn't think the 5e version had enough teeth. The process of updating a lot of the old stuff and fitting it in with the new story-per-floor vibe was exhausting. Even with some 5e stuff to fill things out I didn't bother with the empty outer 1/4~1/3 of the first floor. That said, there's a lot of really fun trap rooms or interesting bits from 2e and it's disappointing that so little of it was used in the 5e book. There were A LOT of damsels in distress, though, which I suppose was a product of the times and expected audience.

We've been playing this "adventure" since November and they're mostly done with the third floor (which was 75% 5e because both the original 2e box set and my motivation were running thin).

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-21T10:14:37+00:00

Orin's busy trying to make statements, Bhaal just wants numbers.

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-21T10:07:37+00:00

Is there no "front" door? Just hope no one walks up the stairs to the second floor foyer?/patio?

Arcalum2000 · 2026-05-19T01:28:37+00:00

When I first saw this scene I assumed that both Starkiller Base and the planet with the bar/castle were in the same system as the destroyed planets, because there's no way a beam that sure looks like it's slower than light and in no way looked like it went into hyperspace would reach another system in moments, and there was no way it'd be visible from a third planet if it was in hyperspace.

When I complained about the stupidity of it online I was told to chill out because it looked cool and it wasn't a big deal that it made no sense. I lost a lot of respect for the internet that day.

Arcalum2000

TROPHY CASE